Painting
- Title:
- Eleanor Norton Flagg
- Object Name:
- Painting
- Object ID:
- 1968.066.01
- Creator:
- Howes, Samuel P. (1806-1881)
Artist - Date:
- 1843
- Description:
- Portrait of Eleanor Norton Flagg (1818-1901), by Samuel P. Howes (1806-1881), 1843. Oil on canvas on masonite. Half-length portrait of a woman, facing slightly right. Sitter has long dark brown curls, parted in center, and dark blue eyes. Wearing a dark brown dress with wide neck, lace at neckline and cuffs, puff sleeves, and a corseted bodice; diamond-shaped brooch on bodice. Seated on a red upholstered mahogany sofa; sitter's right hand resting on sofa's arm. Red-orange draped curtain at right with tassels, brown wall, and landscape in background left with sunset sky. Unsigned. Painted in red paint, lower right: "1843 / E.N. Flagg / 25 yrs". Paper label on frame reverse: "DOLL & RICHARDS, INC. / 140 NEWBURY STREET BOSTON MASS / PAINTINGS WATERCOLORS / ETCHINGS / COLOR PRINTS / PAINTINGS RESTORED CORRECT FRAMING / No. C. 48327". Bronze paint over molded wood frame net cove with applied corner cartouches with foliate scrolls.
- Material:
- Textile
- Dimensions:
- H-30.5 W-26 inches
- Provenance:
- This painting was owned by the sitter's daughter, Linna Belle Flagg Pease (1856-1946), and passed to her daughter, Eleanor Pease Johnson (1891-1980). Mrs. Johnson then donated it to NHHS.
Eleanor Norton was born in 1818, Quebec, Canada, daughter of millwright Seth Norton (1778-1831) and Lydia Sprague (b. 1783). She went to work at the Boott Mills in Lowell, MA, as a young woman. She married William H. Flagg on Nov. 2, 1842 in Albany, NY. William H. Flagg was an overseer at the Boott Mills. He was born in 1813, Exeter, NH, and died in 1904, Lowell, MA. The Flaggs lived in Lowell, Exeter, and Nashua. They had two children, William Norton and Linna Belle (b. 1855). Eleanor died in 1901 at the home of her daughter in Nashua.
Samuel P. Howes worked as a portrait painter and photographer, making his home in Lowell from 1835 until 1881. Howes traveled in Massachusetts and New Hampshire painting portraits of mill girls, craftsmen, businessmen and young families. Bright colors and interesting backgrounds used by the artist hint at the lives and characters of the sitters. - Credit Line:
- Gift of Eleanor P. Johnson
- Subjects:
- Flagg, Eleanor, Industry, Industrialization, Mills, Factories, Factory work, Portrait paintings, Portraits
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