Elenore Abbott

{{Infobox artist

| name = Elenore Abbott

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption =

| birth_name = Elenore Plaisted

| birth_date = 1875{{efn|Abbott's year of birth is generally stated as 1875{{cite book|author=Jeff A. Menges|title=Once Upon a Time . . . A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tale Illustrations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZi8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PR14|date=19 February 2013|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-13436-9|page=1}}{{cite book|author=Mary Carolyn Waldrep|title=Women Illustrators of the Golden Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NUW8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA43|date=25 April 2012|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-13188-7|page=43}} Primary passport and ship registers generally show her date of birth as October 18, 1875, but there are two cases where the date of birth is October 18, 1876. Census records sometimes show her year of birth as 1876, which is an estimate calculation based upon age at the date of the census, rather than an exact calculation based upon her date of birth. A family member believes that her year of birth is 1876, without noting a published source.}}

| birth_place = Lincoln, Maine, U.S.

| death_date = {{death year and age|1935|1875}}

| death_place =

| nationality = American

| spouse = {{marriage|C. Yarnall Abbott|1898}}

| field = Illustration, scenic design, painting

| training = {{nowrap|Philadelphia School of Design for Women}}
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Drexel Institute
Académie des Beaux-Arts

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| patrons =

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}}

File:The Two Brothers by Elenore Abbott.jpg]]

File:The Two Kings' Children by Elenore Abbott.jpg in Grimms' Fairy Tales, 1920{{cite book|author=Jeff A. Menges|title=Once Upon a Time . . . A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tale Illustrations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZi8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|date=19 February 2013|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-13436-9|page=5}}]]

File:Elenore Abbott - The Shoes that Were Danced to Pieces - 1920.jpg for Grimm's Fairy Tales, 1920]]

Elenore Plaisted Abbott (1875–1935) was an American book illustrator, scenic designer, and painter. She illustrated early 20th-century editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Robinson Crusoe, and Kidnapped. Several books were published as illustrated by Elenore Plaisted Abbott and Helen Alden Knipe (later Carpenter).

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. Yarnall Abbott.

Early life and education

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.{{cite web|title=The Artists post 1911|url=http://www.rosevalleymuseum.org/artistspost1911.html|work=The Artists|publisher=Rose Valley Museum and Historical Society|access-date=7 December 2013}}

Career

Abbott, known for her book illustrations, was also a landscape and portrait painter and scenic designer,[http://www.rosevalleymuseum.org/artistspost1911.html#Anchor-47857 Elenore Plaisted Abbott.] The Artists Post 1911, Rose Valley Museum and Historical Society. Retrieved March 5, 2014. 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.Library of Congress. Copyright Office. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7EYcAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA270 Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 4. Works of Art, Etc. New Series]. 1919. p. 270. 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.

{{blockquote|Elenore Abbott loves her fairy tales, and no child who receives such a book will be disappointed... Elenore Abbott is not on the surface a clever artist; her active, vigorous yet idealist's mind is brought into subjection and guides the long sensitive fingers that hold the water color brush.|Evan Nagel Wolf, 1919}}

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.Jill P. May; Robert E. May; Howard Pyle. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xTzraRXV7OMC&pg=PA89 Howard Pyle: Imagining an American School of Art]. University of Illinois Press; 2011. {{ISBN|978-0-252-03626-2}}. p. 89. 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".Laura R. Prieto. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0bcXHa08knsC&pg=PA145 At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America]. Harvard University Press; 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-674-00486-3}}. pp. 145–146. 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.Laura R. Prieto. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0bcXHa08knsC&pg=PA160 At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America]. Harvard University Press; 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-674-00486-3}}. p. 160–161.

Personal life

Elenore married lawyer and artist C. Yarnall Abbott in 1898{{citation | title=Elenore Hennis Plaisted, Marriage License Number 103417, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Marriage Index, 1885–1951 | work= Philadelphia County Pennsylvania Clerk of the Orphans' Court |publisher=Clerk of the Orphans' Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania }} and the couple lived in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania after 1911. Her husband designed the family house with a studio for Elenore and himself.[http://www.rosevalleymuseum.org/artistspost1911.html#Anchor-47857 C. Yarnall Abbott.] The Artists Post 1911, Rose Valley Museum and Historical Society. Retrieved March 5, 2014. 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.

Works

= Illustrations =

{{cite book |author=Louisa May Alcott, Illustrations by Elenore Plaisted Abbott | title=An Old-Fashioned Girl|location=Boston|publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1926 |oclc=105983}}
{{cite book |author=Hans Christian Andersen, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=Flower Maiden and Other Stories |publisher=Edward Shenton |year=1922 }}
{{cite book |author=Anna Maynard Barbour, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=That Mainwaring Affair |url=https://archive.org/details/thatmainwaringa00compgoog |location=Philadelphia, London |publisher=J.B. Lippincott Company|year= 1901 |oclc=10756052}}
{{cite book |author=Jay Cady, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=The Stake: A Story of the New England Coast |url=https://archive.org/details/stakeastorynewe00cadygoog |location=Philadelphia|publisher=G.W. Jacobs & Company|year=1912 |oclc=11337900}}
{{cite book | author=Dwight Burroughs, Illustrations by Helen Alden Knipe and Elenore Plaisted Abbott|title= Jack, the Giant Killer, Jr | url=https://archive.org/details/jackgiantkillerj00burr| publisher=George W. Jacobs | year= 1907 }}
{{cite book | author=Edward Childs Carpenter, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=Captain Courtesy: A Tale of Southern California|location=Philadelphia|publisher=G.W. Jacobs |year=1906 }}
{{cite book | author=Edward Childs Carpenter, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=The Code of Victor Jallot: A Romance of Old New Orleans|location=Philadelphia|publisher=G.W. Jacobs |year=1907 }}
{{cite book | author=Daniel Defoe, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=Robinson Crusoe|location=London| year= 1919 }}
{{cite book | author=Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=The shadowy third, and other stories|location=Garden City, New York|publisher=Doubleday, Page and Company| year= 1923}}
{{cite book | author=Jacob Grimm, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=Grimm's Fairy Tales |location=New York |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|year=1920}}
{{cite book | author=Nathaniel Hawthorne, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales|location=Philadelphia|publisher=G.W. Jacobs & Company| year= 1911 }}
{{cite book | author=Elbridge H. Sabin, Illustrations by Helen Alden Knipe and Elenore Plaisted Abbott|title= The Magical Man of Mirth|publisher=George N. Jacobs| year= 1910 }}
{{cite book | author=Robert Louis Stevenson, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=Kidnapped|location=Philadelphia|publisher=G.W. Jacobs & Company| year= 1915 |oclc=333026}}
{{cite book | author=Robert Louis Stevenson, Illustrations by Eleanore Abbott |title=Treasure Island|location=Philadelphia|publisher=G.W. Jacobs & Company|year=1911|oclc=7602448 }}

= Watercolor paintings =

She made the following watercolor paintings by 1916, when they were exhibited at the Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition:Philadelphia Water Color Club. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HewqAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA50 Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition Catalogue]. 1916. p. 46, 48, 49, 50.

Endymion and the Nereids
The Fairy Tale
Kerfol
Lamia
Madrigal
The Mother
Oh, to Line in the Grass with Pan!
Water

Collections

Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania{{efn|The Smithsonian also has in its inventory for Brandywine River Museum a painting entitled Peggy Abbott Harvey and Daughter Bret (portrait), 1930, oil on canvas{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!130946~!0#focus| title=Peggy Abbott Harvey and Daughter Bret|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }} with the source being Catalog of American Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, Index. of Paintings, 1982 and "Brandywine River Museum: Catalogue of the Collection, 1969-1989" Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine Conservancy, 1991, pg. 153. However, Bret[t] was not born until 1936 and Abbott died in 1935. It is believed by the museum's curator, Virginia O'Hare, that this is a painting of another mother and daughter made circa 1930.{{r|SI 1930}}}}
I Was Despairing When the Bird Returned, {{circa|1914}}, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!378243~!0#focus| title=I Was Despairing When the Bird Returned |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}
On a Rude Throne Sat the Mother, {{circa|1914}}, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!378244~!0#focus | title=On a Rude Throne Sat the Mother |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}
The Cluster of Grapes Were Ripe and Rich, {{circa|1914}}, watercolor on illustration board for Robinson Crusoe{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!378245~!0#focus| title=The Cluster of Grapes Were Ripe and Rich |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}
The Monkey Resumed His Place, {{circa|1914}}, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!378246~!0#focus | title=The Monkey Resumed His Place |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}
Louise Porter (portrait), {{circa|1932}}, oil on canvas{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!130947~!0#focus | title=Louise Porter |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}
Presently I Found I Was Holding to a Spar, {{circa|1913}}, watercolor on illustration board for Kidnapped{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!378242~!0#focus| title=Presently I Found I Was Holding to a Spar |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}
We Retired to Our Airy Castle, {{circa|1914}}, watercolor on illustration board for Swiss Family Robinson{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!378247~!0#focus | title=We Retired to Our Airy Castle |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}
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{{cite web |last1=Abbott |first1=Elenore Plaisted |title=I Was Awakened by the Light of a Hand Lantern |url=http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:10576 |publisher=Delaware Art Museum |ref=Object Number: 1950-11 |location=Delaware |date=1915 |access-date=2020-03-30 |archive-date=2020-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330005414/http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:10576 |url-status=dead }} Retrieved 2020-3-27.
Now and Again I Stumbled, 1911, gouache on paper for Treasure Island{{cite web |last1=Abbott |first1=Elenore Plaisted |title=Now and again I stumbled |url=http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:8987 |publisher=Delaware Art Museum |ref=Object Number: 1950-10 |location=Delaware |date=1911 |access-date=2020-03-30 |archive-date=2020-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330005413/http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:8987 |url-status=dead }} Retrieved 2020-3-27.
One Glance Was Sufficient, 1911, watercolor on paper for Treasure Island{{cite web |last1=Abbott |first1=Elenore Plaisted |title=One Glance Was Sufficient |url=http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:2050 |publisher=Delaware Art Museum |ref=Object Number: 1977-328 |location=Delaware |date=1911 |access-date=2020-03-30 |archive-date=2020-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330005412/http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:2050 |url-status=dead }} Retrieved 2020-3-27.
Take Me in Straight Or I'll Break Your Arm, 1911, watercolor on paper for Treasure Island{{cite web |last1=Abbott |first1=Elenore Plaisted |title=Take Me in Straight Or I'll Break Your Arm |url=http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:9143 |publisher=Delaware Art Museum |ref=Object Number: 1977-327 |location=Delaware |date=1911 |access-date=2020-03-30 |archive-date=2020-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330005416/http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:9143 |url-status=dead }} Retrieved 2020-3-27.
When I Waked, It Was Broad Day, 1913, gouache on paper for Robinson Crusue{{cite web |last1=Abbott |first1=Elenore Plaisted |title=When I Waked, It Was Broad Day |url=http://emuseum.delart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:10341 |publisher=Delaware Art Museum |ref=Object Number: 1950-9 |location=Delaware |date=1913}} Retrieved 2020-3-27.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
The Dance, 1896–1897, mural{{cite web | url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siartinventories&uri=full=3100001~!58013~!0#focus | title=The Dance|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | access-date=December 16, 2014 }}

Gallery

File:Rose Valley by Elenore Abbott.jpg|Rose Valley folding screen, 1903 or 1904

File:Elenore Abbott - Now and Again I Stumbled - 1911.jpg|"Now and again I stumbled," for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, 1911. Delaware Art Museum.

File:Cinderella by Elenore Abbott.jpg|"Rustle and shake yourself, dear tree. And silver and gold throw down to me," for Cinderella, 1920{{cite book|author=Jeff A. Menges|title=Once Upon a Time . . . A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tale Illustrations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZi8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|date=19 February 2013|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-13436-9|page=2}}

File:Elenore Abbott - Six Swans - 1920.jpg|"She looked around, and saw swans come flying through the air", Six Swans for Grimm's Fairy Tales, 1920{{cite book|author=Jeff A. Menges|title=Once Upon a Time . . . A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tale Illustrations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZi8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|date=19 February 2013|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-13436-9|page=3}}

File:Elenore Abbott - Soaring Lark - 1920.jpg|"The griffin carried them over the Red Sea", Soaring Lark for Grimm's Fairy Tales, 1920{{cite book|author=Jeff A. Menges|title=Once Upon a Time . . . A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tale Illustrations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZi8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA4|date=19 February 2013|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-13436-9|page=4}}