Antique 19th Century Painting By Elizabeth Jane Gardner

ANTIQUE 19TH CENTURY PAINTING by Elizabeth Jane Gardner
THE BOY WHO PLAYS THE FLUTE

Elizabeth Jane Gardner (Exeter, 4 October 1837 – Paris, 22 January 1922)
Oil on canvas -Dimensions 74 x 92 cm
SIGNED LOWER RIGHT

Born in New Hampshire, Elisabeth Gardner, a young girl from a good family, received her first notions of drawing and watercolor at Lasell College, where she made friends with her art teacher, the painter Imogene Robinson. When she left for Europe, Elizabeth continued her studies in Boston. Soon, however, she realized that she needed more qualified training; she then left for Paris, where she joined Robinson in 1864.
She studied with Ange Tissier, Hugues Merle, Jules Joseph Lefebvre and finally with William-Adolphe Bouguereau. She was the first American painter to exhibit at the Salon de Paris in 1866 and the first to earn a gold medal in 1872.
When Bouguereau became a widower, Elizabeth became his lover, firmly opposed by her mother. When the latter also passed away in 1896, she married Bouguereau, he being 71 years old and she 59. This relationship and the consequent union were the subject of much comment in Parisian artistic circles. But Gardner, a woman of independent character and clear manager of her own life, never gave importance to the various judgments made of her. Instead, she was particularly influenced by her husband's painting, to the point that some of her works seem to have been painted by him. And once she even admitted: "I prefer to be considered the best imitator of Bouguereau, rather than being nobody."
Widowed in 1905, Elizabeth painted four more important canvases, then, burdened by heavy rheumatic conditions, she stopped all artistic activity.
She died at the age of eighty-five in Paris, where, after all, she had always lived.

THE WORK WILL BE SHIPPED IN A WOODEN CASE AND WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY