Elizabeth Nourse was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1859.  By 1883 Nourse was supporting herself and her sister Louise (in Cincinnati) through sales of her art and decorative commissions.  She spent part of the summers of 1884-86 in the mountains of Tennessee.  She left Cincinnati for Paris in 1887 in order to study but she ended up making that city her home.  There (and back in the United States) she became known for her intimate scenes of rural women engaged in domestic (indoor and outdoor) work and for her depictions of women with children.  She also painted portraits and still lifes, as well as landscapes, especially of Brittany and the Rambouillet Forest.  She and her sister were devout Catholics and members of the lay group Third Order of St. Francis.

Studied: Cincinnati School of Design (McMicken School of Art), with W.H. Humphreys, T.S. Noble, B. Pitman (wood carving), M.Eggers (china painting), L. Rebisso (sculpture), 1874-81; ASL, with W. Sartain, 1882; again under T.S. Noble, 1885-86; Academie Julian, Paris with Boulanger and Lefebvre, 1887; also with Henner and Carolus-Duran in Paris, 1887 (also traveled to Italy and Holland)

Member: Soc. Nat. des Beaux-Arts (assoc. 1895, full mem. 1901); Cincinnati Women’s Pottery Club, 1879; Cincinnati Etching Club, 1881; Lodge AI, Paris, (pres. 1899-1900); MacDowell Society, 1914; Phila. WC, 1914

Exhibited: Cincinnati Indus. Exhibition, 1879, 1881-84, 1886; AWCS, 1884, 1886, 1911; Detroit Art Loan Exhibition, 1883; Paris Salon: Royal Academy, London, 1889, 1892; Soc. Nat. Art. Francais, 1888-89 and Soc. Nat. Beaux-Arts, 1890-1914, 1918-21; Phila. AC, 1891; Royal Soc.Brittish Artists, 1892; Walker AG, Liverpool, 1892; Munich Exhibition, 1892; Columbian Expo, Chicago, 1893 (medal); Cincinnati Art Museum (100 works in 1893, her only solo exhibition; 9 other exhibitions after 1897); V.G. Fischer Gallery, Washington D.C. (her dealer, 1894-1912); NAD, 1894; AIC, 1895-1914; PAFA Ann., 1895-1914 (16 times); St. Louis Expo, 1895, 1904 (medal); Copenhagen Inst. 1897; CI (7 times); Tennessee Cent., Nashville, 1897 (gold); Inst. De Carthage, 1897 (medal); Paris Expo, 1900 (medal); Womans AC, NYC, 1902, 1904 (prize) 1911; Expo des Orientalistes, Paris 1904, 1906; Union des Femmes PS, Paris, 1905, 1916; Amis des Arts, Nantes, 1905, 1908, 1911, 1912; Colonial Expo, Nugent, France 1905, (medal); Lodge AL, Paris (5 times); Corcoran Gallery annuals/biennials, 1907, 1910, 1912; Soc. Int. WCP, Paris 1908 1910; Pan-Pac. Expo, San Francisco, 1915; (gold medal); Int. Artists Union; Closson Gallery, Cincinnati, 1941 (exhibition of works from her estate); Nat. Mus. Am Art, Washington D.C., 1983 (retrospective); Cincinnati Art Museum, 1983 (retrospective)

Work

Large collection, Cincinnati Art Museum; NMAA; TMA; Detroit AI; Luxembourg Museum, Paris; AIC; National Gallery; Adelaide MA Australia; Newark Museum; University of Nebraska; Smith College; University of Washington, Seattle; Tennessee State Museum

References

WW38; Mary Alice Heekin Burke, "Elizabeth Nourse," 1859-1938:  A Salon Career(Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Inst. Press for the National Museum of American Art and the Cincinnati Art Museum, 1983) obit., Cincinnati Enquirer Oct. 10, 1938, 24:1; Cincinnati Painters of the Golden Age, 89-91 (w/ reproductions); Kelly, "Landscape and Genre Painting in Tennessee, 1810-1985," 76-77 (w/ reproduction); Tufts, American Women Artists, cat. No. 49; Fink, American Art at the 19th cent. Paris Salons, 376; Falk, 

Exhibition Record Series