Louise Abbéma

A painter in the Impressionist style, Abbéma is known for her allegorical paintings and genre scenes, and especially for her portraits of society ladies, interiors and a myriad of floral works. Born in Etampes, France, the great-granddaughter of actress Mlle. Contat and Comte Louis de Narbonne, she had an early introduction to the arts through her aristocratic family, and was greatly influenced by painter Rosa Bonheur. In 1873, at a time when it was still unusual for a woman to be accepted into art academies, she became a pupil of Charles Chaplin. She studied under Carolus-Duran the following year, and later, Jean-Jacques Henner.

In 1876, at the age of 22, Abbéma painted a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, whom she'd met five years earlier, which was exhibited at the Paris Salon des Artistes Français of 1876. (At Carolus-Duran's suggestion, she had begun showing work in the Salon the previous year.) Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt was an immediate success for the young painter. She continued to exhibit regularly at the Salon until 1926, gaining an honorable recommendation in 1881, and a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Soon after this triumph, Abbéma created a bronze medallion of Bernhardt, the only known sculpture by her, which she exhibited at the Salon in 1878. In turn, Bernhardt, herself sometimes a sculptor, exhibited a marble bust of Abbéma at the same Salon. Abbéma later made drawings of both sculptures.

Abbéma went on to pursue a brilliant career as a society portrait painter, depicting the celebrities of the age, her former teachers, and many others. Among these were Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opéra, Ferdinand de Lesseps, and Don Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil. One of her most esteemed works is the painting Déjeuner dans la serre, depicting a sumptuous lunch given by Mlle. Bernhardt, which fully displays her Impressionist affinities. Many of her works also showed the influence of Chinese and Japanese painters, as well as contemporary masters such as Édouard Manet.

Particularly known for her portraits of the leading ladies of the high society of her era, Abbéma also painted allegorical figures and many decorative murals for the town halls of the 7th, 10th and 20th arrondissements of Paris, the Hôtel de Ville, the Musée d’Armée, the French National Horticultural Society, the former Sarah Bernhardt Theatre and the palace of the Governor of Dakar, Senegal. She was even designated an Official Painter of the Third Republic, and also exhibited work in the Women's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She worked for several art magazines, including the journals Gazette des Beaux-Arts and L'Art, and illustrated Rene Maizeroy's La Mer.

She was made a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1906.