LOUISE ABBÉMA

Louise Abbéma (French, 1858–1927), Lunch in the Greenhouse, 1877. Oil on canvas, 76 3/8 x 121 1/4 in. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France, 878.1.1. Courtesy American Federation of Arts

Louise Abbéma, well connected in Parisian social and artistic circles, executed numerous portraits of Parisian notables and society figures. She debuted at the Salon in 1874 and exhibited in forty-five exhibitions over the course of her distinguished career. In 1906 she was awarded the prestigious Légion d’Honneur—the highest French order of merit for civic and military accomplishments—the fourth woman to receive that distinction.

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.