Ellen Thayer Fisher

Ellen "Nelly" Thayer Fisher (April 16, 1847 – October 15, 1911) was an American botanical illustrator. Fisher exhibited her paintings at the National Academy of Design[1] and other exhibitions. She was an active contributor to the exhibitions of the American Watercolor Society, beginning in 1872.[2] In addition to being shown in galleries and exhibitions, her paintings of flora and fauna were widely reproduced as chromolithographs by Boston publisher Louis Prang.[1][3]

Ellen Thayer Fisher
Born
Ellen Bowditch Thayer

(1847-04-16)April 16, 1847
Boston, Massachusetts
DiedOctober 15, 1911(1911-10-15) (aged 64)
Lanesboro, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Known forBotanical painter
Spouse(s)
Edward Thornton Fisher
​
​
(m. 1869)​
Blackberries by Ellen Thayer Fisher

Personal life

Ellen Bowditch Thayer was born on April 16, 1847 to William Henry Thayer and Ellen Handerson Thayer of Boston, Massachusetts.[4][5][6] Her father served as a surgeon with the New Hampshire Volunteers in the American Civil War.[7] Her younger brother, Abbott Handerson Thayer became an artist and naturalist.[8] After living in Boston, the family moved to Woodstock, Vermont and in 1855 to Keene, New Hampshire.[9][10] By 1867, they moved to Brooklyn, New York.[1]

Ellen was married on June 30, 1869 to Edward Thornton Fisher (December 16, 1836–)[11] They lived in Brooklyn, New York, and Ellen may also have rented a studio in New York City.[12] They had seven children, Faith (later Mrs. William Wallace Fenn), Henry, Edward, Richard,[13] Margaret, Reginald, and Eleanor.[5]

Ellen Thayer Fisher died on October 15, 1911 in Lanesboro, Massachusetts.[14][15]

Artwork
  • Japan Lily
  • Poppies
  • Sumac and Milkweed
  • Magnolia grandiflora

Ellen was likely self-taught, but may have learned drawing and painting techniques from her younger brother, artist Abbott Handerson Thayer. Denied access to nude models because of her gender, she focused on flora and fauna.[16][6] She is best known for her watercolors.[1]

Fisher was an active participant both before and after her marriage at the Brooklyn Art Association (1867–1884), the National Academy of Design exhibitions (1868–1880), the Pennsylvania Academy (1877, 1885)[15][1][17] and the American Water Color Society (1886).[18]

Between 1884 and 1887, Fisher worked for Louis Prang, whose company used her works and those of many other female artists to produce chromolithograph greeting cards.[19][20][21] She was one of the illustrators for Alice Ward Bailey's Flower fancies (1889), described as an "exquisite volume", "charming alike to the eye and to the mind".[22]

Fisher exhibited her work at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.[23]

Legacy

Her work is included in collections including the Heckscher Museum of Art,[19] New York Public Library,[24] the Boston Public Library,[25] the Huntington Library[26] and the Sellars Collection of Art by American Women in Indianapolis.[27] Her work Poppies was included in the special exhibition Lines of Thought: American Works on Paper from a Private Collection (1996–1997) at the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut.[28] Her work Nesting Bird in Apple Blossoms is part of the United States Department of State cultural exchange program and was exhibited in Luxembourg in 2001.[27] Her work Lady Slipper (1878) appeared in the 2015–2016 exhibition Go Girl at the Heckscher Museum of Art.[19]

References
  1. Bland, Bartholomew F.; Vookles, Laura L.; Gerdts, William H.; Botwinick, Michael (2010). Paintbox leaves : autumnal inspiration from Cole to Wyeth. Yonkers, NY: Hudson River Museum. pp. 45–48, 69. ISBN 978-0943651309. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  2. Foster, Kathleen A. (2017). American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent. Yale University Press. pp. 155–157. ISBN 9780300225891.
  3. Burchard, Hank (March 3, 1995). "Female artists' drawing cards". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  4. Petteys, Chris (1985). Dictionary of women artists : an international dictionary of women artists born before 1900 (5. print. ed.). Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall. p. 249. ISBN 0-8161-8456-9.
  5. Biographical Record of the Graduates and Former Students of the Yale Forest School: With Introductory Papers on Yale in the Forestry Movement and the History of the Yale Forest School. Yale University. Dept. of Forestry, Yale University. School of Forestry. 1913. pp. 49–50. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  6. "Botanical paintings of Ellen Thayer Fisher". Beauty will save. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  7. Thayer, Bezaleel (1874). Memorial of the Thayer Name: From the Massachusetts Colony of Weymouth and Braintree, Embracing Geneological [sic] and Biographical Sketches of Richard & Thomas Thayer, and Their Descendants from 1636 to 1874. Oswego: R.J. Oliphant. p. 217. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  8. "A Painter of Angels Became the Father of Camouflage". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
  9. "A Finding Aid to the Abbott Handerson Thayer and Thayer Family Papers, 1851–1999 (bulk 1881–1950) , in the Archives of American Art". Archives of American Art. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  10. Cole, Karl (October 18, 2011). "Chromolithograph Magic". Curator's Corner.
  11. The Fisher Genealogy: A Record of the Descendants of Joshua, Anthony, and Cornelius Fisher, of Dedham, Mass., 1630–1640. Massachusetts Pub. Co. 1898. p. 253. ISBN 9780608321257.
  12. Masten, April F. (2008). Art work : women artists and democracy in mid-nineteenth-century New York. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 231. ISBN 9780812240719. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  13. Forbes, Richard Huntington. "Richard Thornton Fisher" (PDF). Harvard University. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  14. Tatlock, David (1993). Life in letters of Richard T. Fisher (PDF). Petersham, MA: Prospect Hill Publishing Co., Inc. p. 398. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  15. "Ellen Bowditch Thayer Fisher". AskArt. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  16. Jacobson, Aileen (January 9, 2016). "Museum Explores Trials and Triumphs of Female Artists". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  17. Catalog of a collection of water-color drawings : loaned to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and on exhibition December 3, 1877 to January 12, 1878. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 1877. p. 7. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  18. Illustrated catalogue Nineteenth annual exhibition of the American Water Color Society. American Watercolor Society. 1886. pp. 40, 46.
  19. "You Go Girl! Celebrating Women Artists" (PDF). The Heckscher Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  20. McClinton, Katharine Morrison (1973). The chromolithographs of Louis Prang (1st ed.). New York: C. N. Potter; distributed by Crown Publishers. pp. 231–233. ISBN 9780517504116.
  21. Freeman, Larry (1971). Louis Prang, color lithographer, giant of a man. Century House. pp. 159–164.
  22. "Flower Fancies". Catholic World. 50 (December): 424. 1889. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  23. Nichols, K. L. "Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893". Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  24. "Fisher, Ellen T." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  25. "Fisher, Ellen T." Digital Commonwealth Online: Boston Public Library. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  26. "Jay T. Last Collection of Printing and Publishing: Louis Prang Archive: Finding Aid" (PDF). Huntington Library. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  27. "Ellen Thayer Fisher (Bio)". United States Department of State. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  28. Price, Charles. "Taking the Road Not Taken: American Works on Paper from a Private Collection". Traditional Fine Arts Organization. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
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