Portrait of the Marquis de Pierre by Nélie Jacquemart

Nélie Jacquemart (1841–1912) was a painter who went on to become a renowned French art collector, bequeathing her mansion to the State, which became the Jacquemard-André Museum in Paris. Nélie Jacquemard was a remarkable figure. She managed to study in the studio of the painter Léon Cogniet, a professor at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, at a time when the school did not yet accept female students. Léon Cogniet’s sister, Marie-Amélie, introduced her to painting and the art of copying her brother’s works. Following this training, Nélie Jacquemart quickly specialised in lucrative society portraiture, particularly of children (Aguttes auction, 22 November 2016).

Nélie Jacquemart managed to exhibit two genre scenes at the 1863 Salon, when she was just twenty-two years old, and went on to exhibit at the Salons of 1866 and 1867. That year, she travelled to Italy with the painter Ernest Hébert, director of the Académie de France in Rome, and was thus able to follow the cursus honorum of the Prix de Rome laureates, to which she had no access as a woman. Thanks to her connections, she painted the cream of Parisian society, right up to the President of the Republic, Adolphe Thiers. Having gained recognition, she won medals at the Salons, received official commissions and taught drawing. It was in this way that she was commissioned by Édouard André, a fabulously wealthy banker, to paint his portrait in 1872. The portrait of the Marquis de Pierre à Aulteribe, who was a friend of Édouard André’s, dates from 1876.

This marked the beginning of a long relationship that culminated in their marriage ten years later. She then gave up painting and, together with her husband—co-editor of the *Gazette des Beaux-Arts*—built up a collection of works of art. On her death, following the example of the Duke of Aumale and his estate at Chantilly, she bequeathed her collection and two remarkable properties to the Institut de France: the Parisian townhouse on Boulevard Haussmann (the Jacquemart-André Museum) and Chaalis Abbey in the Oise. It is also worth noting that the couple, like Pierre, were fascinated by the Eastern world and designed, at Chaalis Abbey to a greater extent than at the Château d’Aulteribe, an ‘Oriental salon’ featuring works collected during their travels in the Middle East and the Far East, from Iran to Burma and from Egypt to the Punjab.

An extremely rare letter from Nélie Jacquemart – rare because the painter burnt all her correspondence before her death – is kept at the Château d’Aulteribe, attesting to her links with Arthur Onslow, whose wife maintained close ties with Algeria. They lived in Fontainebleau and built up a collection of paintings, probably receiving expert advice from Nélie Jacquemart. The portrait of the Marquis René de Pierre is signed and dated 19 January 1876, the date of his death. It was painted posthumously, probably from a photograph. Particular attention has been paid to his gaze, which is clear and direct, facing the viewer.

Giancarla Cilmi, The Jacquemart-Andrés: Collectors of Italian Art. Acquisitions and the art market between France and Italy (late 19th–early 20th century), thesis in art history supervised by Gennaro Toscano and Michel Hochman, EPHE, 2019.

Julie Verlaine, ‘Nélie Jacquemart (1841–1912): painter and collector’, Women Art Collectors and Patrons: from 1880 to the present day, Paris, Éditions Hazan, 2013.