"La Confidence" c1880 by Elizabeth Jane Gardner, born #OTD 1837 (d1922), one of the first US women artists to exhibit at the Paris Salon (1868). Student of W-A Bouguereau at the Académie Julian: they became close artistically and personally and eventually married. #WomensArt

Gardner, determined and ambitious, overcame the ban on women at nude life classes by joining with other female art students in Paris to hire a model to draw from in their own time. She also wore men's clothing (with police permission) to attend all-male art classes. #WomensArt

Gardner's work fell into disfavour after her death because of her conservative academicism, her commercialism, and her wholesale adoption of Bouguereau's style. She would not have cared: "I would rather be known as the best imitator of Bouguereau than be nobody". #WomensArt