Ellen Starbuck (1858-1936) American/French, Oil on Board. Depicts a series of quaint houses in the countryside. Signed and dated '97 bottom right. Framed.

Overall: 13 7/8 x 16 7/8 in. 

Sight: 9 7/8 x 12 7/8 in. 

#3588 . 

Ellen "Nellie" Starbuck was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1858. Her father, William Hadwin Starbuck, was owner of the prosperous Starbuck & Tappan Merchant Company, and her mother was an amateur artist, who took her to numerous museums and galleries as a youth, introducing her to the work of the Old Masters. By the time she finished primary education she was fluent in both German and French, and traveled to Europe in the late 1870s to study art first-hand. Her family wealth allowed her to live in relative comfort and travel extensively, although when she began studies at Henry Mosler’s studio in 1879 her father expressed his disapproval. When her parents divorced in 1880, she was already ingrained in the circle of the Impressionists, painting en plein air alongside other American students. She exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1888 and 1889, and continued her studies at the Académie Colarossi, drawing male nudes and experimenting with gouache. She remained in France until after her father’s death in 1896, returning to New York and teaching Impressionist techniques, which were met with less scorn in her hometown than back in Paris. Her first solo exhibition was at the Brooklyn Black and White Club in 1900, and she made several trips back and forth to France, earning a reputation as an expatriate. After the outbreak of World War I her pacifist and feminist stance alienated her from the patriotic fervor that infected the art scene on both continents. She moved to Nantucket, Massachusetts to live with her cousins in the early 1920s, and died there in 1936, virtually forgotten except for a handful of paintings kept in Boston museums. In the late 20th Century her work was rediscovered as part of the American Impressionists, and more scholarly study is underway about her involvement in the movement.

Small vertical line. Small spot of paint lost.