Lillian Elvira Moore Abbot (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Lillian Elvira Moore; c. –) was an American artist, known for her paintings and flower studies.

Early life and education

Lillian Elvira Moore Abbot was born on June 3, 1869 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Her parents were Elvira (née Finch) and John Lewis Moore. Abbot studied at the

Corcoran School of Art The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

and was the student of Catherine Carter Critcher,

Edmund C. Tarbell Edmund Charles Tarbell (April 26, 1862August 1, 1938) was an American Impressionist painter. A member of the Ten American Painters, his work hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithson ...

, Edmund Clarence Messer, Richard Norris Brooke, and

William M. Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

Career

Abbot primarily painted in watercolor and oil paintings and focused on the subject of flowers and floral

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

. She less commonly painted landscapes (mostly of

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

s), portraits, and interior scenes. On October 13, 1897, she married astrophysicist

Charles Greeley Abbot Charles Greeley Abbot (May 31, 1872 – December 17, 1973) was an American astrophysicist and the fifth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, serving from 1928 until 1944. Abbot went from being director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Obs ...

, the 5th secretary of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. Once married, Abbot accompanied and assisted her husband during his expeditions on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, including to

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South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. They lived between Washington, D.C., and Mount Wilson,

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Starting in 1917, she was a member of the Society of Washington Artists. Her first comprehensive solo exhibition was in 1933, at the Art League of Washington at 2111 Bancroft Place, Washington, D.C.. She had an art exhibition hosted by the Art League of Washington from May 1-15, 1935.

Death and legacy

Abbot died on June 1, 1944 in her home in Washington, D.C. after a long illness. She is buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Maryland. Abbot was survived by her husband; they never had children. Her work is part of the Frick Art Reference Library's MoMA Photo Files, and she has a biographical information file at the

Smithsonian Institution Archives Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institution ...

References

External links

* Photo archive
Lillian Elvira Moore Abbot artist file
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbot, Lillian Elvira Moore Created via preloaddraft 1869 births 1944 deaths American women painters Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni Painters from Washington, D.C. People from Vienna, Virginia 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American painters Painters from Virginia