ABBEMA Louise

SARAH BERNHARDT HUNTING WITH HOUNDS

Oil on canvas: 85 x 61,5 cm / 33.5 x 24.2 in
Signed upper left

Painter of allegorical subjects, genre scenes, portraits, interiors, flowers and decorative panels; painter of gouaches and pastels, watercolourist, engraver, draughtswoman and illustrator.

Louise Abbéma was a pupil of Charles Chaplin, Jean-Jacques Henner and Carolus-Duran. Until 1926 she exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français, gaining an honourable recommendation in 1881 and a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. She was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur in 1906. At the age of 22, she had her first success with the “Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt”. She went on to pursue a brilliant career as a society portrait painter, depicting the celebrities of the age, her former teachers and the architect of the Garnier Opera House. Abbema is particularly known for her portraits of the leading ladies of the high society of her era, but she also painted allegorical figures and many decorative murals for the town halls of the 7th, 10th and 20th arrondissements of Paris, the Hôtel de Ville, the Army Museum, the former Sarah Bernhardt Theatre and the palace of the governor of Dakar. She worked for several art magazines end illustrated René Maizeroy’s “La Mer”.

Period:
Etampes (Seine-et-Oise) 1858 - Paris 1927
French School

Exhibitions:
Etampes - Paris - Pau

Literature:
E. Bénézit, "Dictionary of Artists", Paris 2006, Vol. 1, p. 29.