Louise Abbéma (30 October 185329 July 1927) was a French painter, sculptor, and designer of the Belle Époque.
Biography
Abbéma was born in
Étampes
Étampes () is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southwest from the center of Paris (as the crow flies). Étampes is a sub-prefecture of the Essonne department.
Étampes, together with the neighboring ...
,
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes. Her great-grandmother was the actress Louise Contat. She began painting in her early teens, and studied under such notables of the period as Charles Joshua Chaplin,
Jean-Jacques Henner
Jean-Jacques Henner (5 March 1829 – 23 July 1905) was a French painter, noted for his use of sfumato and chiaroscuro in painting nudes, religious subjects and portraits.
Biography
Henner was born at Bernwiller (Alsace). He began his studies ...
and Carolus-Duran. She first received recognition for her work at age 23 when she painted a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, her lifelong friend and possibly her lover.
She went on to paint portraits of other contemporary notables, and also painted panels and murals which adorned the Paris Town Hall, the Paris Opera House, numerous theatres including the "Theatre Sarah Bernhardt", and the "Palace of the Colonial Governor" at
Dakar
Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...
. She had an academic and impressionistic style, painting with light and rapid brushstrokes.
She was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon, where she received an honorable mention for her panels in 1881. Abbéma was also among the female artists whose works were exhibited in the Women's Building at the 1893
World Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Chicago. A bust Sarah Bernhardt sculpted of Abbéma was also exhibited at the exposition.
Abbéma specialized in oil portraits and watercolors, and many of her works showed the influence from Chinese and Japanese painters, as well as contemporary masters such as
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Bo ...
. She frequently depicted flowers in her works. Among her best-known works are ''The Seasons'', ''April Morning, Place de la Concorde'', ''Among the Flowers'', ''Winter'', and portraits of actress Jeanne Samary, Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil,
Ferdinand de Lesseps
Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps (; 19 November 1805 – 7 December 1894) was a French diplomat and later developer of the Suez Canal, which in 1869 joined the Mediterranean and Red Seas, substantially reducing sailing distances and times ...
, and Charles Garnier.
Abbéma was also an accomplished printmaker, sculptor, and designer, as well as a writer who made regular contributions to the journals ''Gazette des Beaux-Arts'' and ''L'Art''. She also illustrated several books, including la mer, René Maizeroy.
Among the many honors conferred upon Abbéma was Palme Academiques, 1887 and nomination as "Official Painter of the Third Republic." She was also awarded a bronze medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. In 1906 she was decorated as
Chevalier of the Order of the Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
.
Abbéma died in Paris in 1927. At the end of the 20th century, as contributions by women to the arts in past centuries received more critical and historical attention, her works have been enjoying a renewed popularity. Abbéma was included in the 2018 exhibit ''Women in Paris 1850-1900''.
New Woman
As educational opportunities were made more available in the 19th century, women artists became part of professional enterprises, including founding their own art associations. Artwork made by women was considered to be inferior, and to help overcome that stereotype women became "increasingly vocal and confident" in promoting women's work, and thus became part of the emerging image of the educated, modern and freer "
New Woman
The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century and had a profound influence well into the 20th century. In 1894, Irish writer Sarah Grand (1854–1943) used the term "new woman" in an influential article, to refer to ...
". Artists then, "played crucial roles in representing the New Woman, both by drawing images of the icon and exemplifying this emerging type through their own lives,"Laura R. Prieto. At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America '. Harvard University Press; 2001. . p. 160–161. including Abbéma who created androgynous self-portraits to "link intellectual life through emphasis on
ocular
Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and con ...
ity".Kathryn Brown. Women Readers in French Painting 1870-1890: A Space for the Imagination '. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.; 2012. . p. 209. Many other portraits included androgynously dressed women, and women participating in intellectual and other pastimes traditionally associated with men.
Gallery
File:Louise Abbéma - A Game of Croquet.jpg, ''A Game of Croquet ''(1872)
File:Bernhardt, Sarah (1844-1923) - 1875 - ritratta da Abbema, Louise (1858-1927).jpeg, ''Sarah Bernhart'' (1875)
File:Louise Abbéma, Autoportrait à l'âge de dix-huit ans, 1876.jpeg, ''Self-portrait, age 23'' (1876)
File:Jeanne Samary portrait by Louise Abbéma.jpg, ''Portrait de Jeanne Samary''
File:Louise Abbéma.jpg, ''Matin d'avril, Place de la Concorde, Paris'' (1894)
File:L. Abbéma Au Piano.jpg, ''Au piano'' (''circa'' 1880)
File:L. Abbema Flora.jpg, ''Flora'' (1913)
File:Self-portrait by Louise Abbéma.jpg, Portrait of Madame B.'' (''circa'' 1900)
File:Louise Abbéma (1853-1927). Sarah Bernhardt.jpg, Sarah Bernhardt
File:Parisienne by Louise Abbéma.jpg, Fernand Desmoulin after Louise Abbéma, Parisienne ', after 1886, etching