Elizabeth May (Bess) Norriss

Elizabeth May Norriss, later Bess Norriss Tait, (17 May 1878 – January 1939) was an Australian artist.

Life Norriss was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1878. She studied at Melbourne Art Gallery School and in 1905 at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

Norriss Street in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in her honour.

Life in London In 1911, she returned to London and resided in Church Street, Chelsea. She exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, the New Society of Artists and the Paris Salon between 1908 and 1936, Francis Derwent Wood's bronze bust of her (1922) was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest for the Tate in 1926. A large one-man show of her work was held at Walker's Galleries in 1938. She died in London in 1939.

Work in collections Her work is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.