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 distanced herself, preferring a freer, more intuitive approach.
She married the painter and engraver Félix Bracquemond in 1869, whose influence proved ambivalent, while he initially supported her, he later opposed her painting, although Marie Bracquemond joined the Impressionist movement in 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 reflect a luminous, vibrant sensibility. In Petite vue de Sèvres, the artist explores the effects of natural light, like her contemporaries Monet and Renoir, but with a personal touch that is both vibrant and gentle. In Paysage à la ruelle - reminiscent of Claude Monet's famous Meules series - Marie Barcquemond captures and transmits the chromatic changes of light, not only in the facades and their shadows but also in the trees, confirming the words of critic Gustave Geffroy: “Her favourite master was always Claude Monet, of whom she never ceased to speak with enthusiasm”.
As a woman artist, Marie Bracquemond is one of the three great female figures 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, and her exile, from the 1890s onwards.
Although in the 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 pivotal 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 the Impressionist movement.