In spite of extraordinary obstacles, talented artists such as Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, Fede Galizia, and Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau paved the way for future generations of artists around the world.
19th Century European Painting Specialist Alexandra Allen highlights the achievements of Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau through two of her works, Les Trois Amis and La Captive. As one of the most accomplished Salon artists of her time, she exhibited a total of thirty-six paintings between 1868 and 1914, more than any other foreign or American female artist. In 1887, she became the first—and only—American woman to receive a Salon gold medal.
Painted for the 1883 Salon, La Captive reflects Gardner Bouguereau’s refined treatment of figures, faces, hands, feet, and drapery, all rendered within a subdued and tasteful color palette.
Women are amazing artists and I think it's exciting and important that we point out
who some of these artists were because these artists were working so hard and against so
many odds to get entry into the salon, entry to an academic studio. These were
things that were just second nature for men and for women it was a constant battle.
Elisabeth Gardner Bouguereau was an American by birth, came to Paris in 1864,
within four years was at the salon and became one of the most commercially successful artists.
And there's some fun stories about Elisabeth Gardner Bouguereau cutting all her hair off
and going out and buying men's clothes and sneaking into a few studios dressed as a man
because that was the only way she could get in. And she finally gets into the studio of
William Bouguereau, the man who would eventually become her husband but was foremost her teacher.
Bouguereau was among the most prestigious talents and also the most important teachers
in late 19th century Paris and the list of artists who came through his studio is immense.
And his support made an enormous difference. William Bouguereau often encouraged Elisabeth
to paint classical figures. He'd often refer to them as les fantaisies. And in this case
it highlighted what she excelled at as an artist. She was a beautiful depictor of hands and feet,
she had an unbelievable sense of color harmony, which I think you really see in this picture,
and she also was fabulous at drapery, which is clearly highlighted in these almost life-size
monumental figures. It's a very beautiful, soft picture, but I think what's interesting is that
the interpretation of it is many things. It's called La Captive, but you can make your mind
up as to who the captive is in this picture. It could be the dove, it could be the actual
protagonist of the picture. This was created for the 1883 Salon. That's what accounts for the size.
The term Salon hang comes from the fact that paintings would be crowded together.
The bigger your picture is, the more chance there is that people will see it.
Elisabeth Gardner Bouguereau is the first and only American woman to win a gold medal at the Salon,
and I'm saying that in 2019. I think that's amazing. When people walked in and made their
decisions on who got a gold medal, they weren't looking at who the artist was. They were looking
at the artwork itself. This is a picture that just has resonated with me from when it came in.
There's a part of me that hopes that this is some sort of reflection of the female artistic world
of Paris helping each other, and that perhaps in the back of her mind, subconsciously, that might
have been some part of the creation of this work. I love her story. I appreciate that she's an
American who went abroad. She took risks. She didn't have a lot of money when she got to Paris.
She had to fight to kind of make her way through the art world, and then she found success.
