Elizabeth Jane Gardner

Elizabeth Jane Gardner ( born October 4, 1837 in Exeter, New Hampshire; † January 28, 1922 in Saint-Cloud, Hauts -de -Seine département ) was a French painter of U.S. origin.

In winter 1866/67 Gardner came to Paris at the Académie Julian and became a student of William Adolphe Bouguereau, Jules -Joseph Lefebvre and Hugues Merle. With the support of their teachers Gardner was able to attend the big annual exhibition of the Salon de Paris as the first foreign artist.

1872 there was a picture of her - as the first artist ever - won a gold medal. Her life she could never be solved completely out of the shadow of her teacher Bouguereau, so that again and again pictures of her were attributed to him. 1896 Gardner married her former teacher William Adolphe Bouguereau, and later settled with him in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, where she also died.

Works (selection)

• La fille du fermier, 1887, oil on canvas, 170 x 97 cm
• L ' Imprudente