Collection: Marie Bracquemond

Marie Bracquemond (née Quivoron) was a French Impressionist artist, born in Argentan in 1840 and dying in Sèvres in 1916. She studied drawing as a child and exhibited at the Paris Salon as an adolescent. Though she lacked formal art training, she received instruction from Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and advice from Paul Gauguin, which influenced her stylistic approach. She is counted among the four notable women of the Impressionist movement.

Bracquemond worked as a painter, graphic artist, and ceramist, often depicting portraits and female figures in natural settings. She participated in the fourth, fifth, and eighth Impressionist exhibitions in 1879, 1880, and 1889, respectively. With her husband, printmaker Félix Bracquemond, she created ceramic art for Haviland & Co. She produced at least 157 original works during her career.

Her husband, Félix Bracquemond, disapproved of her Impressionist direction and reportedly belittled her ambition, contributing to her frequent omission from art historical accounts. Gustave Geffroy, in his 1894 History of Impressionism, described her as one of "the three great ladies" of the movement. Her only solo exhibitions occurred posthumously.