Eleanor Norcross

Her father provided her a comfortable living, under the proviso that she would not sell her paintings. 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.

• Name — Eleanor Norcross • Birth Name — Ella Augusta Norcross • Born — 24 June 1854 • Birthplace — Fitchburg, Massachusetts, US • Died — 19 October 1923 • Place of death — Fitchburg, Massachusetts, US • Known for — Establishing Fitchburg Art Museum • Notable Works — My Studio • Movement — Impressionism

Ella Augusta Norcross was born on June 24, 1854, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts,She was raised in two houses on Fitchburg's Main Street. One no longer stands and the other is on upper Main Street, across from Upper Common. about 50 mi 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. 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. Frances Vose Emerson (1855–1950) was a teacher and later trustee of Wheaton College for a total of about 24 years. She also owned and ran the Home and Day School for Girls in Boston.

• Illustration — My Studio, 1891, oil on canvas, Fitchburg Art Museum, Massachusetts • Illustration — Tapestry, oil on canvas, Fitchburg Art Museum • Illustration — Carpeaux Sevres (also known as Arte Moderne), oil on canvas, Fitchburg Art Museum Norcross studied at Boston's Massachusetts Normal Art School, now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, to prepare to teach art. Living in Fitchburg, she commuted by train to the school in Boston. Norcross earned her teaching certificate by 1876 and taught drawing in the Fitchburg schools for a year. Norcross moved with her father to Washington when he was elected to the House of Representatives. A "witty and lively conversationalist", 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.

• Illustration — Fitchburg Art Museum To implement her plan to establish a cultural center in Fitchburg, Norcross shipped works of art from her collection to her hometown and left $10,000 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 museum is also reported to have been founded in 1925 in 1927. The museum states that it was opened 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."

Norcross died of kidney failure on October 19, 1923.

Shows of her paintings were held after her death. The memorial exhibition at the Louvre, opened by American ambassador Myron T. Herrick, included 53 of her paintings in 1924. The Louvre retained two paintings Norcross made of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs's interior. Sixteen of her works were exhibited at the Salon d'Automne the same year; Norcross was the first American to have had a retrospective of her work there. A show was also held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1925.