Collection: Marie Bracquemond

Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916) was a French painter from modest beginnings who studied art under traditionalist, Jean-August-Dominique Ingres. She took advantage of the opportunity to paint at the Louvre when the museum encouraged women to become copyists. She was one of four female artists to exhibit in the Impressionist Exhibitions in 1879, 1880, and 1886. It was at the Louvre that Bracquemond met her husband, Felix, who was very fond of her earlier, Ingres-influenced work, but not of her later Impressionist paintings. His dogged disapproval eventually led her to stop painting in 1990. They had one son, Pierre. She is considered one of the most important female Impressionist artists of her time.