Eleanor Norcross

Ella Augusta Norcross was born on June 24, 1854, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, about west of Boston, to Amasa Norcross and Susan Augusta Norcross. Her father was an attorney, Fitchburg's first mayor, state senator, and United States representative. Her mother, Susan, had been a school teacher in the Fitchburg area and during the Civil War was a leader of the Ladies' Soldiers Aid Society, which provided clothing, blankets, and other supplies to soldiers from Fitchburg and other locations in the state of Massachusetts. In 1863, her three-year-old brother Nelson died of scarlet fever, and when she was 14, her mother died of consumption. Norcross and her father, the remaining household members, had a close relationship. File:Norcross family.jpg Norcross was afforded a privileged education that was not available to many young ladies of her generation. At 16 years of age, she graduated from Fitchburg High School, and, beginning in 1870, she attended Wheaton Female Seminary, now Wheaton College. When she was 16 and 17 years old she wrote essays for Rushlight, the school's literary journal. The nature of her essays provide insight into the woman she would become: one who would successfully operate in a male-oriented society, had an interest in bettering the plight of others, and appreciated historical things. She graduated in 1872. Frances Vose Emerson was a classmate at Wheaton, good friend from childhood, and ultimately a trustee for the Fitchburg Art Museum. ==Education and early career==

, Massachusetts File:Eleanor Norcross, Woman in a Paris Garden.jpg|thumb|Woman in a [Paris] Garden, Fitchburg Art Museum 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 and beginning in 1878, Norcross studied art in New York City under William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League of New York for up to five years. In June 1883, she sailed for Paris to study with Alfred Stevens at Chase's suggestion. She and a few other women studied with the Belgian artist during the winters of 1883 and 1884. ==Career==

Father's influence Her father provided financial support that allowed Norcross to live comfortably. She exhibited her works in salons, according to the agreement with her father that she would not sell any of them; 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 1914 Musée des Arts Décoratifs (in the Louvre) was to have exhibited her works, but the show was cancelled due to the commencement of World War I. Collection She began purchasing art objects with the intention of sending them to America, so that people that were not afforded the luxury of traveling to Europe could view good works of art. and the Fitchburg Public Library was a beneficiary of photographs, prints, engravings, textiles, dishes, and furniture. ==Museum==

To implement her plan to establish a cultural center in Fitchburg, or $100,000 in her will, with the provision that the town raise an equal amount to provide a healthy endowment, otherwise the monies would go to Wheaton Seminary. Friends Frances Vose Emerson and Providence art teacher Sophia Lord Pitman were identified in the will as trustees for the museum. An old brick stable was purchased in 1924 and was remodeled by Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc., a Boston firm of women architects, into a French Provincial building. In 1929, the Fitchburg Art Center opened, it was later renamed Fitchburg Art Museum. Most of the collection and the building were destroyed in a fire in 1934. The museum now has 20,000 square feet of exhibition space over four buildings and works of art from the pre-Columbian era to the 20th century. The works of art—which include paintings, prints, illustrated books, drawings and photographs—originated in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The Fitchburg Art Museum has a collection of Norcross's work, along with works of John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, and other American and European artists. Traute M. Marshall, author of Art Museums Plus, said, "[S]he stands up well against the more famous competition." ==Death==

Norcross died of kidney failure ==Posthumous exhibitions==

Shows of her paintings were held after her death. ==Notes==