Louise Abbéma was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, and designer of the Belle Époque.
Background
Louise Abbéma was born on October 30, 1853 in Etampes, France. The daughter of Emile Abbéma and Henriette Anne d'Astoin.
Louise was born into a wealthy Parisian family, who were well connected in the local artistic community.
Education
Louise Abbéma began painting in her early teens, and studied under such notables of the period as Charles Joshua Chaplin, Jean-Jacques Henner and Carolus-Duran.
Career
Abbéma 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, Senegal. She had an academic and impressionistic style, painting with light and rapid brushstrokes.
Abbéma was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon. She was also among the female artists whose works were exhibited in the Women's Building at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition 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. She frequently depicted flowers in her works ("Bouquet de fleurs" and "Jardin fleuri").
Louise 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.
Abbéma died on July 10, 1927 in Paris, France.