Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau: A Medal from the Salon

"The Farmer's Daughter"
by Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau

"In 1887 there was a turn of events that gave Elizabeth Gardner, once more, a distinguished position among artists exhibiting in the French capital. With her painting "La Fille du Fermier (The Farmer's Daughter"), she became the first and only American woman to receive a medal (third class) at the Paris Salon. She was then fifty years of age.

This was an honor she had desired for some time. As early as 1877 she turned down orders so as to have more time to devote to her Salon entry. 'I must work to get a medal in Paris and not for money a while longer. All will come right in time I am confident if I work hard and am patient.'  She wrote in 1878, 'I am bound to get a medal some year.' Then it came:

'My pictures at this year's Salon ('La Fille du Fermier' and 'L'Innocence') have just received the medal which I have waited for so many years. I hasten to write you by the first mail for I know you will all sympathize with me in my happiness. The jury voted me the honor by a very flattering majority - 30 voices out of 40 - and it is the only medal given to an American since the new tariff. No American woman has ever received a medal here before. You will perhaps think I attach more importance than is reasonable to so small a thing, but it makes such a difference in my position here, all the difference between that of an officer and a private, and I hope it will be a good thing for the sale of my paintings. 

I made an extravagant risk in my large one this year. Monsieur Bouguereau is very happy at my success. He is as usual President of the Jury, it is his great impartiality which has so long kept him in office. He has always said that I must succeed through my own merit and not by his influence. I hope to send some photos soon... I have nearly a hundred letters of congratulations and dispatches to acknowledge today. I have begun by the dear ones at home.'"

To be continued

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