Louise Abbéma

Louise Abbéma painted fashionable Paris: elegant women, flowers and portraits, done with light, quick brushwork and a fresh palette. She sat between academic polish and Impressionist looseness, and she was especially good at portraits of confident, intelligent women.

Born in Étampes, she studied with Charles Chaplin, Jean-Jacques Henner and Carolus-Duran. She is best known for her long friendship with the actress Sarah Bernhardt, whom she painted several times. Abbéma also produced decorative schemes for the Paris Town Hall and theatres, exhibited at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, won a bronze medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1906.

Look for her flowers: she often set a figure among blossoms, and the flowers get as much care as the face.