Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau: Paris!

"A Young Girl Holding a Basket
of Grapes" by Elizabeth
Gardner Bouguereau

"Elizabeth Gardner and Imogene Robinson sailed for Europe, probably in the summer of 1864. What made two young women embark upon an expedition to Paris at the height of the Civil War is difficult to imagine today. Certainly the fact that Imogene had already been abroad must have been reassuring to Gardner. The skill they had acquired at copying could secure needed revenue, provided they had sufficient orders before leaving or names of agents who could sell their copies. They also acted as agents for Jonas Gilman Clark, an art collector, acquiring paintings by French Masters and sending them back to him in New York. In addition, the seven years spent administrating their own school had undoubtedly provided valuable knowledge that would help them forge their way once they reached the French capital.

Up till now, there is no evidence of Elizabeth having studied art with any particular artist except for the short time in 1856 with Imogene. So one might also conclude that one of her principal reasons for sailing to Paris could very well have been in search of training.What she, herself, however, expected to find overseas in terms of training was related some years later in an interview:

'I had never dreamed on quitting America, that all Paris had not a studio nor a master who would receive me. I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that the few French or foreign women then familiar to the Salon or the Latin Quarter, like the women painters who had preceded them were the wives, sisters or daughters of painters, and it was in the ateliers of their menfolk they lived and worked.'

The first obstacle, therefore, was just to gain admission to a studio."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Elizabeth Jane Gardner: Her Life, Her Work, Her Letters," MA Thesis by Charles Pearo, McGill University, 1997)