The Woman

In the photograph before us, Louise Abbéma is seen from afar, seated on a sofa, with no tools or any other objects to hint at her profession. Indeed, her pose, typical for women in academic painting, seems ill-suited. Lost in the profusion of décor, Abbéma looks out from behind palm trees like a puma. Such an image, which engages the common trope of associating women with nature, is hardly appropriate for a distinguished female artist. Nevertheless, her inclusion in a series of photographs featuring male artists remains remarkable.

A photograph of Abbéma by Agence de presse Meurisse reflects the artist’s identity and significance much better. In this image, we see a confident painter who asserts her profession by posing, brushes in hand, before an unfinished canvas. Her masculine clothing underlines her uncommon position as a successful, professional female artist.

Louise Abbéma was a student of none other than Carolus Duran.[1] Her first success was the Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt (1876) and she went on to have a brilliant career. Although she worked in a multitude of genres, she is best known as a society painter who produced portraits of her famous contemporaries, including her teacher, Duran.[2] Abbéma exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français. Most notably, she was made Chévalier of the Légion d'Honneur — a remarkable achievement for a woman in nineteenth-century France.[3]