Fisher Girl of Picardy

Elizabeth Nourse, Fisher Girl of Picardy, 1889, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Elizabeth Pilling, 1915.3.1
Copied Elizabeth Nourse, Fisher Girl of Picardy, 1889, oil on canvas, 46 3432 14 in. (118.782.0 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Elizabeth Pilling, 1915.3.1
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Artwork Details

Title
Fisher Girl of Picardy
Date
1889
Dimensions
46 3432 14 in. (118.782.0 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Elizabeth Pilling
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Keywords
  • Figure group — female and child
  • Landscape — coast
  • French
  • Landscape — France — Picardy
Object Number
1915.3.1

Artwork Description

In the summer of 1889, Elizabeth Nourse traveled with her sister Louise and their Cincinnati friend Anna Schmidt around northern France. It was a bitterly cold day when Nourse painted this scene, and Anna later wrote: “I was with Elizabeth when she painted that girl on the Etaples Dunes---it was so cold and windy the model used to weep.” The model’s pink cheeks and limbs suggest the discomfort of the blustery coastal air that particular day. (Burke, “The Rediscovery of Elizabeth Nourse,” Queen City Heritage: The Journal of the Cincinnati Historical Society, Spring 1983)

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