Eleanor Norcross

Ella Augusta "Eleanor" Norcross (June 24, 1854 – October 19, 1923) was an American painter who studied under William Merritt Chase and Alfred Stevens. She lived the majority of her adult life in Paris, France, as an artist and collector and spent the summers in her hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Norcross painted Impressionist portraits and still lifes, and is better known for her paintings of genteel interiors.

Her father provided her a comfortable living, under the proviso that she would not sell her paintings. With a life mission to provide people from her hometown the ability to view great works of art, Norcross collected art, made copies of paintings of Old Masters, and systematically documented decorative arts from the 12th through the 19th century. Her funding and art collection were used to establish the Fitchburg Art Museum.

In 1924, her works were shown posthumously in Paris at the Louvre and Salon d'Automne, where Norcross was the first American to have had a retrospective. Her works were also shown the following year at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Early life Ella Augusta Norcross was born on June 24, 1854, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts,

Education and early career

Norcross studied at Boston's Massachusetts Normal Art School, to prepare to teach art. Living in Fitchburg, she commuted by train to the school in Boston. Norcross earned her teaching certificate by 1876 she acted as his hostess in the capital My Studio (1891)—which depicts her father in a room with "elaborately patterned textiles", antique and oriental furnishings, and flowers—is "the most impressive" of her works at the Fitchburg Art Museum. It was also her image of an "ideal home". Her works were also shown in Boston and New York City. Norcross shared a studio with Alix d'Anethan, whose paintings, influenced by Puvis, were of pastoral and contemporary life. After 1905, she made copies of paintings by great artists, like Hals, Velázquez, and Botticelli. At roughly the same time, she began making paintings of French decorative art from 12th century Gothic art through the 19th century that she saw in galleries, including interior scenes of the Louvre. Norcross's interiors provided insight into European decorative arts: the Fitchburg Art Center opened, it was later renamed Fitchburg Art Museum.

Posthumous exhibitions Shows of her paintings were held after her death.