Louise Abbéma was a celebrated French painter, portraitist and decorative artist associated with the cultural life of Belle Époque Paris. A pupil of Charles Chaplin, Jean-Jacques Henner and Carolus-Duran, she gained early recognition for her portraits and became particularly known for depictions of prominent figures from Parisian society, including the actress Sarah Bernhardt, with whom she maintained a close personal and artistic relationship.
Abbéma exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon and received a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Her work encompasses society portraiture, elegant interiors, floral compositions and decorative panels, reflecting the fashionable artistic world of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century France. She was appointed Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in 1906 and is today recognised as an important female artist of the Belle Époque.