Elizabeth Nourse Oil on Canvas Painting "The Old Farmhouse"

Item Details

An original painting titled The Old Farmhouse by noted Cincinnati artist Elizabeth Nourse. Done in bold and confident brushstrokes, Nourse illustrates a charming rural scene with a farmhouse at the end of a flower-lined pathway. Her keen observations and command of the composition successfully draws the viewer into the charming landscape. The painting is signed in the lower right and is housed in a spectacular gold gilt frame with carved detailing at the outer corners. An affixed brass plaque bears the title and the artist’s name.
Elizabeth Nourse (1859-1938) was born in Cincinnati, Oh., she and her twin sister were the youngest of twelve children in a Catholic household. Having an interest and natural talent in art, Elizabeth began her formal studies at the McMiken School of Design (now the Art Academy of Cincinnati) where she excelled to the point of being one of the few chosen women to attend life drawing classes with live models taught by Thomas Noble.
In 1882, after studying at the academy for seven years, Elizabeth was offered a teaching position which she declined in order to relocate to New York where opportunities seemed more abundant. With the generous funding from a patron, she was able to attend classes at the Art Students League of New York City. Her stay in New York was short-lived and Elizabeth returned to Cincinnati where she was highly sought as a portrait painter.
Elizabeth furthered her art education in 1887 when she traveled to Paris to study at the famed Academie Julian under the tutelage of Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre. She set up her studio and exhibited in Paris to acclaim, she was the first American woman (and the second woman overall) to be instated as a member of the Societe Nationale des Artistes Francais. Travel again beckoned and Elizabeth painted the people she met all over Europe, Russia and North Africa.
Elizabeth’s portraits and rural landscapes made her now a celebrity artist with her work featured in many museums to include the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Arts in Washington, DC, the Musee du Luxembourg and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Elizabeth Nourse was considered among her contemporary’s a 19th century ‘New Woman’ who was a successful, self-confident, highly trained professional who fearlessly flouted the accepted social codes regarding woman at the turn of the century. She never married and remained very close with her twin sister throughout her life (interestingly, her sister married famed Cincinnati woodcarver Benn Pittmann). In 1920 Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer which eventually took her life in 1937.

Condition

The painting is in excellent condition, it has been exhibited away from direct light in a gallery for several years. The framing is exquisite and appropriate for the genre with the title and artist’s name on an attached brass plaque.

Dimensions

Item #

16CIN490-001