The following was submitted by B. L. Lowe of Thistle Fine Art:

Edna Ellis Baylor (1882-1966) was born in Hartford, Connecticut.  After her parents’ early death she persuaded her guardian uncle to send her to the School at the Museum of Fine Arts on the condition that she win first prize in painting-which she did.  She later studied with Frank Benson and Edmund Tarbell. She moved to Ipswich in 1930.

She chose flowers as her favorite subject throughout her life. Her grandchildren remember the wonderful smell of fine oil paints and turpentine in her studio on the north side of her house. Her painting of peonies was on the cover of the French magazine Revue du Vrai et du Beau (September 1927). Inside, it was noted that she painted flowers as if they were portraits, true and beautiful.  Her exhibitions included the North Shore Arts Association, the National Academy of Design, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Source:
Ipswich Museum