Elenore Abbott

Abbott was educated at three art schools in Philadelphia and Paris and influenced by Howard Pyle. She was among a group of New Women who sought educational and professional opportunities for women, including creating professional art associations like The Plastic Club to promote their work. She was married to fellow artist and lawyer C.

Elenore Abbott studied at Edwin Forrest House, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Académie des beaux-arts. Training under Howard Pyle is recorded. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Residence is recorded at Paris and Philadelphia. Employment is recorded with Hedgerow Theatre. Works named in the authority record are Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, Kidnapped and Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics. Work by Elenore Abbott is recorded in the collections of Brandywine Museum of Art.

• Name — Elenore Abbott • Birth Name — Elenore Plaisted • Born — 1875 • Birthplace — Lincoln, Maine, U.S. • Died — 1935 • Field — Illustration, scenic design, painting • Training — Philadelphia School of Design for Women Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Drexel Institute Académie des Beaux-Arts • Illustration — The Two Brothers • Illustration — "Earthmen, Come Up" for The Two Kings' Children in Grimms' Fairy Tales, 1920 • Illustration — The Shoes that Were Danced to Pieces for Grimm's Fairy Tales, 1920

Elenore Plaisted was born in Lincoln, Maine. She studied art at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and in Paris, France at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, where her work was exhibited. Abbott moved back to Philadelphia in 1899. She was influenced significantly by Howard Pyle, her instructor at the Drexel Institute. She said later in her life that she created her favorite pieces under his tutelage.

Abbott, known for her book illustrations, was also a landscape and portrait painter and scenic designer, including work for Hedgerow Theatre's production of The Emperor Jones. She produced illustrations for Harper's Magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, and Scribner's magazines. Abbott created illustrations for books, such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Johann David Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson, Louisa May Alcott's Old Fashioned Girl, and the Grimm's Fairy Tales. Abbott was a member of the Philadelphia Water Color Club and Philadelphia's The Plastic Club, an organization established by women artists to promote "Art for art's sake". Its members included Jessie Wilcox Smith, Violet Oakley, and Elizabeth Shippen Green. These women were identified as the New Woman. As educational opportunities were made more available in the 19th century, women artists became part of professional enterprises, including founding their own art associations. Artwork made by women was considered to be inferior, and to help overcome that stereotype women became "increasingly vocal and confident" in promoting women's work, and thus became part of the emerging image of the educated, modern and freer "New Woman". Artists "played crucial roles in representing the New Woman, both by drawing images of the icon and exemplifying this emerging type through their own lives." In the late 19th-century and early 20th century about 88% of the subscribers of 11,000 magazines and periodicals were women. As women entered the artist community, publishers hired women to create illustrations that depict the world through a woman's perspective. Other successful illustrators were Jennie Augusta Brownscombe and Rose O'Neill.

Elenore married lawyer and artist C. Yarnall Abbott in 1898 and the couple lived in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania after 1911. Her husband designed the family house with a studio for Elenore and himself. Their daughter Marjorie, named after Elenore's maternal aunt, was born in 1907. When her aunt died, the Abbotts took in her daughters, Sonya and Elenore. Elenore Abbot co-founded the Rose Valley swimming pool, in 1928, which was housed on land donated by the Abbotts and financed by the sale of some of Elenore's paintings.

• Illustration — Rose Valley folding screen, 1903 or 1904 • Illustration — "Now and again I stumbled," for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, 1911. Delaware Art Museum. • Illustration — "Rustle and shake yourself, dear tree. And silver and gold throw down to me," for Cinderella, 1920 • Illustration — "She looked around, and saw swans come flying through the air", Six Swans for Grimm's Fairy Tales, 1920 • Illustration — "The griffin carried them over the Red Sea", Soaring Lark for Grimm's Fairy Tales, 1920

Elenore Abbott was recorded at birth as Elenore Plaisted. She also worked under the names Plaisted, Elenore and Abbott, Mrs. The authorities additionally record the headings Elenore Plaisted and Elenore Plaisted Abbott. She married C.

Elenore Abbott is recorded with the occupation scenographer. Classed in the genre portrait. Recorded as painter, illustrator, scenographer and artist.

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She made the following watercolor paintings by 1916, when they were exhibited at the Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition: • Endymion and the Nereids • The Fairy Tale • Kerfol • Lamia • Madrigal • The Mother • Oh, to Line in the Grass with Pan! • Water

• Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania • I Was Despairing When the Bird Returned, c. 1914, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson • On a Rude Throne Sat the Mother, c. 1914, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson • The Cluster of Grapes Were Ripe and Rich, c. 1914, watercolor on illustration board for Robinson Crusoe • The Monkey Resumed His Place, c. 1914, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson • Louise Porter (portrait), c. 1932, oil on canvas • Presently I Found I Was Holding to a Spar, c. 1913, watercolor on illustration board for Kidnapped • We Retired to Our Airy Castle, c. 1914, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson • Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE • I Was Awakened by the Light of a Hand Lantern Shining in My Face, 1915, gouache on paper for Kidnapped • Now and Again I Stumbled, 1911, gouache on paper for Treasure Island • One Glance Was Sufficient, 1911, watercolor on paper for Treasure Island • Take Me in Straight Or I'll Break Your Arm, 1911, watercolor on paper for Treasure Island • When I Waked, It Was Broad Day, 1913, gouache on paper for Robinson Crusoe • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia • The Dance, 1896–1897, mural