Elizabeth Nourse: Supporting Herself through Art

"Emerson Pitman" (1885) by Elizabeth Nourse

"Elizabeth now had to confront the problem of supporting herself and her sister. She continued to earn money in a variety of ways, one of which was painting decorative oil panels for Cincinnati homes. Benn Pitman, her brother-in-law, probably secured many of these commissions for her as the interior of the unique Gothic structure he had recently designed and built for his home became the model for many local projects that followed. Pitman's house, inset with carved marble panels and stained glass, was located on a hill overlooking the Ohio River. On the exotic interior woodwork - cherry, black walnut, ebony, oak and rosewood - were carved superb original design based on local flora and fauna that remain in place today. Elizabeth painted the dining room walls and the panels set above the mantel, and made architectural drawings of the rooms and furniture so that Pitman could publicize these examples of his Ruskinian  formula for American designs and handicrafts.

At least one other of Nourse's decorative commissions survives. This panel, 'Flock of Geese,' was commissioned by Alice Pike Barney, a wealthy Cincinnatian who was one of the many interesting women to support the artist. Barney studied with Nourse, whom she commissioned to paint a portrait of her daughters, and encouraged by Nourse, went to Paris for further art study in 1887.

Elizabeth's sketchbooks of this period also contain many drawings of Austin and Walter Schmidt, sons of close friends, as babies, and Emerson Pitman, the second son born to Adlaide and Benn Pitman. In a strong but sensitive drawing of Emerson in charcoal and chalk with gouache highlights, she handles the media with an almost painterly touch as she molds the facial structure with bold contours and softly textured shadows. Her interest in painting infants and mothers and children, which she shared with Mary Cassatt, seems to have begun with the births of Walter and Emerson and continued throughout her career.

In 1885 Elizabeth returned to McMicken School of Design to take advantage of the school's first course (under Thomas Noble) to offer study from the nude to women. Together with her fellow classmates from four years earlier, Caroline Lord and Laura Fry, she studied in the life class for two years before she left to study in Paris."

To be continued

 

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