Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau (American, 1837–1922), La Confidence, c. 1880. Oil on canvas mounted on aluminum, 68 x 47 1/8 in. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. Original gift of Mr. George Seney to the Lucy Cobb Institute, Athens, GA. GMOA 00.67. Courtesy of American Federation of Arts

Elizabeth Gardner began her studies at Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts and traveled to Paris in 1864 to continue her artistic training in private studios. Gardner enrolled in the Académie Julian, studying under William-Adolphe Bouguereau, whom she married years later in 1896. In 1868, she was among the first American woman artists to exhibit in the Paris Salon. She earned several medals with her submissions to the Salon and Exposition Universelle, and she participated in the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.

A fully illustrated catalogue, Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900, has been published by the American Federation of Arts and Yale University Press. Along with an art-historical overview by curator Laurence Madeline, the catalogue includes essays by Jane R. Becker, collections management associate, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Richard Kendall, former curator at large, Clark Art Institute; Bridget Alsdorf, associate professor, History of Art, Princeton University; and Vibeke Hansen, curator, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo.