Apolline Lacroix (née Biffe; 1805–1896) was a French actress who married

Paul Lacroix Paul Lacroix (; 27 February 1806 – 16 October 1884) was a French author and journalist. He is known best by his pseudonym P.L. Jacob, bibliophile, or Bibliophile Jacob, suggested by his great interest in libraries and books generally. Biogra ...

, the curator of the

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (''Library of the Arsenal'', founded 1757) in Paris has been part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France since 1934. History The collections of the library originated with the private library of Marc-René, 3rd ...

in Paris, on May 7, 1834. She also lived with Paul Lacroix's collaborator, art collector

Théophile Thoré-Bürger Étienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré (better known as Théophile Thoré-Bürger) (23 June 1807 – 30 April 1869) was a French journalist and art critic. He is best known today for rediscovering the work of painter Johannes Vermeer and several o ...

, for more than a decade. Their affair only ended with his death in 1869. On Thoré-Bürger's death, she inherited his valuable art collection, which included paintings by

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

and '' The Goldfinch'' by

Carel Fabritius Carel Pietersz. Fabritius (; bapt. 27 February 1622 – 12 October 1654) was a Dutch painter. He was a pupil of Rembrandt and worked in his studio in Amsterdam. Fabritius, who was a member of the Delft School, developed his own artistic style ...

that Thoré-Bürger had found in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

200 years after its creation. Subsequently, much of the collection was sold off.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacroix, Apolline French art collectors 1805 births 1896 deaths 19th-century French actresses