Ella Gillmer Peacock was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1905. She painted the areas around Sanpete County in Utah in a matte, thin, and grayed out tonalist style of the Depression era known as the "dirty thirties." She died in Spring City, Utah in 1999.

Peacock attended the Maryland Institute of Art where she studied in the stained glass design studio of Paula Balano, and graduated from the School of Design in Philadelphia in 1927. She worked at a variety of jobs-from teaching school to painting lampshades-during the depression. She married Bill Peacock, raised a child, and worked on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania until they retired in 1970. She and her husband moved to Spring City, Utah where she began to paint again in a plein air "dirty thirties" style.

Moroni Turkey Hatchery Plant (Moroni Feed Company) (1990) and Old Mill in Nephi (1988) are part of the Springville Museum of Art permanent collection. Girl in a Red Scarf is an example of her portrait work. Pioneer Chapel in Porterville 1987 was featured in the Springville Museum of Art spring salon.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from the Springville Museum of Art.