Although born in Cincinnati, Elizabeth Nourse moved in 1887 to France, where she spent her long and prolific career as an expatriate painter.
In 1890 Nourse traveled to Italy for an extended stay visiting Grottaferrata, Tivoli, Venice, Florence, and Rome. This ethereal watercolor with Saint Mark’s in the background shows Nourse working out of doors, not just a studio painter of mothers and children, the work for which she is best known.