Elizabeth Jane Gardner

Born in 1837 in Exeter, New Hampshire, Elizabeth Jane Gardner would become an American expatriate in Paris, where she pursued a career as an academic and salon painter, achieving renown as the first American woman to ever exhibit a work at the Paris Salon in 1868 at the age of 30. She was also the first female to ever win a medal at the Paris Salon, which she did for her painting The Farmer’s Daughter (MacLean).

Gardner studied painting under a number of professionals, but the one who inspired her the most was William-Adolphe Bouguereau, whom Gardner would eventually marry at age 59 in 1896. Her goal as a painter, she said, was to emulate Bouguereau rather than create a style that was uniquely her own. She even stated, “I know I am censured for not more boldly asserting my individuality, but I would rather be known as the best imitator of Bouguereau than be nobody!” (Wissman 116).

However, Gardner was never “nobody”—on the contrary, she was a very talented and highly praised American artist whose work in Paris received rave reviews. Her work most closely resembles the Realist school—for example, The Farmer’s Daughter (1878) which depicts a young woman feeding hens and which was the work that won her the gold medal from the Paris Salon; though she sometimes did religious themes as well—such as Moses in the Bullrushes (1878) and David the Shepherd (1895).

Gardner developed her love of art working as a teacher in Massachusetts. She moved to Paris with a friend in 1864, hoping to get into the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but it was still a male-only school at the time, so her application was rejected.

The famous art school would not actually admit women until nearly the very end of the 19th century—but by then Gardner had already made a name for herself and distinguished herself among her peers by being the first female to exhibit at the Paris Salon and the first female to win a medal there.

In 1887, upon being awarded with the prize, she wrote home to her brother John who still lived in New Hampshire, stating, “The jury voted me the honor by a very flattering majority – 30 voices out of 40. .. 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” (MacLean).

She went on to state that she hoped the medal would help to increase her sales and that Monsieur Bouguereau “is very happy at my success” (MacLean). Indeed, Bourguereau admired her talents and abilities deeply—as did her brother John, with whom she often corresponded to tell of her trials, successes and challenges while living in Paris.

In order to reach the pinnacle of her success, Gardner had to spend many years copying the contemporary masters who were in demand at the time, and she always wrote home to John to tell him about it. Gardner’s life, like her artistic works, were a reflection of the beauty of the world around her: she excelled at charming her peers and at pursuing her dreams, never quitting until she had realized her artistic ambitions.

She came from Puritan New England, yet found something astonishingly alive and vital about living in Paris—as though she were at last coming into contact with the spirit of the Old World that she so longed to replicate in her artwork. Her marriage to Bourguereau was, in a way, like the highlight of.