This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Dayton, Ohio, Elanor Colburn became an early 20th-century
painter of California landscapes and also did figure work, most
especially mothers and children, some of them Native American.
Her style is described as "evolving from a type of Impressionism to
Dynamic Symmetry". It differed from the usual definition of
Impressionism because it had more abstract forms, often
geometric.
She is listed with a variety of names: Eleanor Eaton (1886-1890);
Eleanor Gump (1895-1896); Eleanor Colburn (1900-1903). In 1927,
she changed the spelling of her first name to Elanor.
Her first husband had the last name of Eaton. In 1898, she
married Joseph Elliott Colburn, who was an artist and opthamologist,
and they divorced in 1915, but she continued to use his last name.
Colburn
studied with William Merritt Chase and Frank Duveneck, and attended the
Art Institute of Chicago, where, in 1900, she was also a teacher.
In 1924, she and her daughter Ruth Eaton Peabody, who became a
well-known artist, moved to Laguna Beach, California and built a studio
on the South Coast Highway where they lived, painted and taught.
In 1927, having recovered from some prolonged spells of illness, she
resumed her painting career with seriousness, and having developed an
interest in Native American culture, began traveling for subjects
including to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. She also painted
in Palm Springs and other areas of California.
Colburn became a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association, which she
served as Director from 1926 to 1929, and was also a member of the San
Diego Art Guild and the Painters and Sculptors Club of Los
Angeles. Exhibition venues included the Cincinnati Art
Museum, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego and the John Herron Institute in
Indianapolis.
Elanor Colburn died in Laguna Beach on May 7, 1939.
Source:
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Dayton, OH in February 1866, Elanor Colburn studied with Wm
Chase, Frank Duveneck, and at the AIC where she later taught.
Early in life her married name was Eaton but in 1898 she wed Joseph
Colburn. Both marriages ended in divorce.
She and her daughter, Ruth Eaton Peabody, moved to Laguna Beach in 1924
and built a studio on the South Coast Highway where they lived,
painted, and taught. Her early works were Impressionist in style,
mainly portraits and mother-and-child subjects; after 1927 she
constantly experimented with new art idioms including Dynamic Symmetry
(the juxtaposition of volumes upon space).
In 1927 she dropped the internal "e" from her name and then signed her paintings, "Elanor Colburn."
The artist died in Laguna Beach on May 7, 1939.
Member: Laguna Beach AA (director, 1926-29); San Diego Art Guild. Exh:
Chicago Municipal Art League, 1908 (purchase prize); Laguna Beach AA,
1927-32 (medals); Painters & Sculptors of LA, 1928; LACMA, 1929
(solo); San Diego, 1930 (prize); SFMA Inaugural, 1935; Calif. WC
Society, 1936-38; San Diego FA Gallery, 1939 (memorial); Laguna Museum,
1984.
In: Chicago Municipal Art League; Columbus Gallery of FA; Gallery of
Toronto; Minn. Inst. of Arts; Orange Co. (CA) Museum; Omaha Art Inst. | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
The West as Art; American Art Annual 1919-33; Who's Who in American Art 1936-39; Southern California Artists (Nancy Moure); Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); Women Artists of the American West; Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers (Fielding, Mantle); So. Calif. Artists, 1890-1940; South Coast News, 5-9-1939 (obituary). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
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