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While in Paris, Jesse met Eurilda Loomis, a young American girl also studying at the Julienne Academy. Eurilda Loomis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 25, 1860, the daughter of William and Isabella Hill Loomis. Both the Loomis and Hill families were involved in the glass making industry. When the business expanded, the William Loomis family moved to Portland, Maine where William was the superintendent of the Portland Glass Works. Eurilda, then 18 years old, was impressed by the beauty of the Maine coast. She became interested in art through the association of the art form of the glass industry. Her desire was to learn to paint flowers and portraits.
After their marriage in 1888, they returned to Europe to continue painting. They had settled in Katwijk on the Zee in Holland, where most of their paintings were done as they continued to study under the Dutch artist, H.W. Mesdag. Jesse still preferred to paint land and sea subjects usually with vivid colors while Eurilda was more interested in painting portraits and flower arrangements. Her portraits usually had dark to black backgrounds, characteristic of 18th and 19th century European artists. Eurilda’s favorite subjects were townspeople of Holland and Brittany, while Jesse favored painting the sea and taking photographs for future reference.
On February 18, 1891, Eurilda and Jesse France’s first son, DeWayne Loomis France, was born in Paris. When the baby was six months old, they returned to Highland Farms in Lexington, KY where Jesse’s father had built them a home near the main house. They lived at the farm until 1894 when they moved to Montreal, Canada. By 1896 they moved to Buffalo, NY where their second son, William, was born on May 17, 1896. While in Buffalo, Jesse taught art classes and continued as a professional artist painting and illustrating for McClures, Harpers, Scribners, and the Literary Digest magazines.
In 1902, Jesse and Eurilda purchased land on the cliffs of Higgins Beach at Scarboro, Maine. They built a summer home and studio, and Jesse continued painting his beloved marine scenes. The Maine coast and particularly Higgins Beach gave him views of the ocean surf pounding at the rocks in all types of weather, stormy and clear. Many of his paintings and photographs capture the moments that most appealed to him.
