First introduced to the portrait miniature at age 17, Eulabee Dix from the 1890s through the 1930s became instrumental in the revival of this centuries-old art form in the United States and England.

She was born in Greenfield, Illinois, but financial setbacks forced her family to move several times during Dix's youth. Her early interest in art was stimulated by the year she spent studying oil painting and life drawing at the St. Louis School of Fine Art, where she won several awards. In 1895 the Dixes settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Four years later, Dix moved to New York City to become a professional artist.

In New York, Dix studied at the Art Students League, took private classes with the noted miniature painter Isaac A. Josephi, and exhibited with the newly established American Society of Miniature Painters. Between 1902 and 1909 Dix got to know many important artists and had numerous prominent sitters, including the actresses Ellen Terry and Ethel Barrymore and the photographer Gertrude Käsebier.

Dix's first trip to Europe in 1904 led to an important one-person show of her work in London two years later. She won a medal at the 1927 Paris Salon and also displayed her work at important venues in the United States and Portugal. Dix received glowing reviews and was a popular lecturer.

In 1910 Dix married the New York lawyer Alfred Becker, with whom she had two children; the couple divorced 15 years later. When miniatures again went out of fashion in the late 1930s, Dix adapted by painting large oil portraits and a popular series of floral still lifes. At the age of 78, perhaps attracted by the low cost of living, Dix moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where a retrospective of her art was held at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in 1958.