Elizabeth Nourse
1859
–1938
BirthplaceMount Healthy, Ohio, United States of America
Death placeParis, France
BiographyAn expatriate based in France, Elizabeth Nourse made a successful career as a painter of genre scenes, or images of everyday life. Nourse was a native of Cincinnati. She studied at the Cincinnati School of Design and briefly at the Art Students League in New York City. By the time she completed her studies, at the age of twenty-two, she had exhibited her work in the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition of 1879. She supported herself doing decorative and easel painting until 1887, when her savings allowed her to pursue further study in Paris, accompanied by her older sister, Louise. She studied briefly at the Académie Julian, a popular art school, and soon exhibited one of her paintings at the competitive annual juried exhibition known as the Salon. She would be a regular Salon exhibitor for more than two decades.
Over the next five years, Nourse traveled extensively, often accompanied by Louise and fellow women artists. During stays in Russia, Ukraine, Holland, Austria, and the French countryside, she found ample subjects for her oil and watercolor paintings. In 1890–91 the Nourse sisters lived in Italy; devout Catholics, they joined a lay group known as the Third Order of Saint Francis. In 1893 Nourse traveled back to the United States, her only return visit. That year, three of her paintings hung in the art exhibition at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition, and the Cincinnati Museum Association (predecessor of the Cincinnati Art Museum) mounted an exhibition of one hundred of her works, many of which then went on view at the V. G. Fischer Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., her primary American dealer.
The artist’s success enabled her to take up permanent residence in Paris. She showed her work regularly in both American and European exhibitions and enjoyed considerable international patronage and prestige. In 1899–1900, Nourse served as president of the American Woman’s Art Association in Paris, and in 1901 she was the first American woman elected to the prestigious Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Her accomplishment as an American woman artist in France parallels that of her friend and more famous contemporary Mary Cassatt; both built reputations largely on images of women and children.
Over the next five years, Nourse traveled extensively, often accompanied by Louise and fellow women artists. During stays in Russia, Ukraine, Holland, Austria, and the French countryside, she found ample subjects for her oil and watercolor paintings. In 1890–91 the Nourse sisters lived in Italy; devout Catholics, they joined a lay group known as the Third Order of Saint Francis. In 1893 Nourse traveled back to the United States, her only return visit. That year, three of her paintings hung in the art exhibition at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition, and the Cincinnati Museum Association (predecessor of the Cincinnati Art Museum) mounted an exhibition of one hundred of her works, many of which then went on view at the V. G. Fischer Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., her primary American dealer.
The artist’s success enabled her to take up permanent residence in Paris. She showed her work regularly in both American and European exhibitions and enjoyed considerable international patronage and prestige. In 1899–1900, Nourse served as president of the American Woman’s Art Association in Paris, and in 1901 she was the first American woman elected to the prestigious Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Her accomplishment as an American woman artist in France parallels that of her friend and more famous contemporary Mary Cassatt; both built reputations largely on images of women and children.