Florence Young lived to be 101 years old.

After a year of study in Holland, Florence maintained a studio in Chicago for seven years where she studied with Nicolai Fechin at the Art Institute of Chicago. She then moved to the Los Angeles area, just south of Pasadena in the town of Alhambra, just five blocks away from "Artists Alley."

In the early 20th century, Alhambra was quite the artist colony.

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In 1923, Florence made her studio home for the next thirty years on Granada Avenue. Just five blocks away were many of her artist friends and associates who lived on Champion place, later dubbed "Artist's Alley," where legendary artists Clyde Forsythe, Sam Hyde Harris, Frank Tenney Johnson, and Jack Wilkinson Smith maintained homes and studios.

Associated with this "Artist Alley" group was Massachusetts artist Norman Rockwell.

For a number of years, Norman Rockwell would visit his old studio mate Clyde Forsythe from their days in New Roshell, New York.

Norman liked to escape Massachusetts winters and California suited him well. Clyde introduced Norman to one of his neighbors, a school teacher who lived on Champion Place named Mary Barstow.

From her studio base in Alhambra, Florence painted California scenes en plein air, northward to Monterey Bay, Carmel, Yosemite and even to the Gulf of Alaska. Like her neighbors on Alhambra's Artist's Alley, she loved painting California desert scenes.

In Who Was Who in American Art by Peter Falk, Florence Young's painting is likened to California painting giants Edgar Payne, William Wendt, Maurice Braun, Seldon Connor Gile, Percy Gray, the Wachtels, Hanson Puthuff, Sam Hyde Harris and more.

She has been exhibited widely, was a member of Women Painters of the West and the Society for Sanity in Art. Her work may be seen in the Orange County Museum, and the Iowa Museum. Source: AskArt.com

Florene was born in Ft. Dodge, Iowa in 1872. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. By 1920, she was living in Long Beach with her parents. By 1930, she was living in Alhambra. Florence was a member of the Women Painters of the West, the Valley Artists Guild and liker her Alambra artist neighbor, Sam Hyde Harris, she was a member of the Society for the Sanity in Art. Florence passed away in February of 1974 at the age of 101.