Elizabeth Nourse: WWI

"Flower Study" by Elizabeth Nourse

"During the first months of World War I, Elizabeth Nourse kept a diary of her activities, which Anna Schmidt published in December 1914. She described the preparation of Paris for siege as the French and English armies were swiftly overrun. Those who were not French citizens were advised to leave and most oof the American expatriates did, but the Nourses decided to remain. 'We shall stick it out and retire to the cellar,' Elizabeth wrote. 'It is a pretty nice cellar and not too dirty or damp.' Louise expressed the same sentiments to her niece: 'All the Americans are going . . . but we will stay right here. I should feel like an ungrateful wretch to run away - as though I fled from some hospitable roof when smallpox breaks out.'

Elizabeth wrote of her dismay at the sight of artillery fire over the Luxembourg Gardens, which she could see from her studio window, yet viewed the beleaguered city with a painter's eye:

'Paris is too beautiful now, so quiet, so exquisite in the pale autumn sunshine. And the nights! Nights of beauty - with the most wonderful effect of light and shade - because there are so few street lamps, and the great masses of shadow - the moon beams like silver - all like a wonderful painting - painted by God.'

The Nourse sisters worked tirelessly to care for the refugees who flooded into Paris. Elizabeth enlisted the help of many French and American friends in collecting food, clothing, and coal for the homeless and the poor. 'The bell rings every other minute,' she reported, 'so many poor coming and so many nice ladies with bundles to distribute.' She solicited donations from friends in the United States and Canada, and Anna Schmidt was particularly active in raising funds for her in Cincinnati, Boston, and Gloucester. Elizabeth was especially concerned with aid to artists whose lives had been disrupted by the war. In 1919 the board of the New Salon presented her with a silver plaque in recognition of her charitable work on behalf of indigent artists and their families."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Cincinnati Societaire" by Mary Alice Heekin Burke in "Elizabeth Nourse, 1859-1938: A Salon Career)