Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Fidelia Bridges became a specialist in detailed watercolor studies of plants and flowers and birds in their natural surroundings. This was a time when watercolor became increasingly respected. She was a follower of the Pre-Raphaelite* movement in art, the close-focus, detailed, small scale watercolor technique espoused by John Ruskin.

Of her painting of this period, landscapist John Kensett wrote in Art Journal: 'Her works are like little lyric poems, and she dwells with loving touches on each of her birds like blossoms atilt among the leaves'. (Rubinstein 62).

However, later in her career, her style became somewhat looser in that the backgrounds were less defined.

She was also an ...