TEFAF MAASTRICHT: MARIE BRACQUEMOND

Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916) was a French Impressionist painter. Born in Argenton-en-Landunvez, she developed an early interest in art and trained under Ingres, from whom she later withdrew, preferring a freer, more intuitive approach.

She married the painter and printmaker Félix Bracquemond in 1869, whose influence was ambivalent: while he initially supported her, he later objected to her painting, although Marie Bracquemond had joined the Impressionist movement by 1870.
Supported by figures such as Edgar Degas and Claude Monet, she took part in several Impressionist exhibitions (1879, 1880), including the group's last major exhibition in 1886, at Degas's invitation, where she exhibited striking works alongside those of Monet, Sisley and Gauguin.

Marie Bracquemond's paintings bear witness to a luminous, vibrant sensibility. In works such as  Paysage à la ruelle or Enfant dans un parc, she explores the effects of natural light, like her contemporaries Monet and Renoir, but with a soft, personal touch; while her landscapes exude a harmony reminiscent of Alfred Sisley. 

In Paysage aux arbres, she produced a veritable serial study of trees, repeating the same motif at different times of day, and capturing the chromatic changes of light, thereby confirming Gustave Geffroy's statement that “her favorite master was always Claude Monet, of whom she never ceased to speak with enthusiasm”. Marie Bracquemond's portraits, like the one of her son Pierre in the Musée d'Orsay or La pêche aux écrevisses, recall the intimacy and elegance of Mary Cassatt's work.

As a woman artist, Marie Bracquemond is one of the great female artists of Impressionism, alongside Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. However, her work has long been relegated to the background of art history, overshadowed by the weight of the patriarchal conventions of her time, but also by her withdrawal from the art world, her exile, from the 1890s onwards.
Although a minority, Impressionist women played an essential role in the movement. Like Morisot and Cassatt, Bracquemond often focused on scenes of daily life, combining intimacy and stylistic innovation. However, the social and family challenges she faced - notably her husband's hostility to her art - limited the scope of her work during her lifetime.

Today, Marie Bracquemond is being rediscovered as a central figure in the Impressionist movement, not only for the quality of her work, but also for her role as a female pioneer. Recent exhibitions in 2008 in Frankfurt and San Francisco, and more recently in 2019 at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and in 2024 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, have put Marie Bracquemond back in her rightful place, highlighting her essential contribution to the history of art and to the Impressionist movement.
Rediscovering Marie Bracquemond is therefore of particular importance as part of a sociological and historical reappraisal of women artists.

Marie Bracquemond is not only a talented artist, she is also a symbol of resilience.