Eleanor Norcross, Studio with Flowers, n. d., oil on canvas. Gift of the Concordia Partnership.

These lush blossoms were likely painted in the early twentieth century during one of Eleanor’s summers spent in Fitchburg. Although born and brought up in Fitchburg, Eleanor found Paris gave expression to her artistic talent and love of decorative art collecting. The painting remained folded and stored in an attic in New Hampshire, discovered by accident in 2006. Painstakingly restored and framed the inviting interior is nearly filled with a riot of lavender, pinks, rose shades, and brilliant white cascades.

Having remained unseen for nearly a century, FAM visitors now see these flowers blossom all over again. One Art reviewer writing in the American Magazine of Art wrote of Norcross, October 1925: “One beautiful color harmony seemed to melt into another.” Although the focus was Eleanor’s Paris studio, the comment seems to aptly apply here.