Louise Desbordes

Louise Alexandrine Desbordes-Jouas (4 February 1848 — 18 August 1926) was a French painter and musician associated with the province of Anjou. She exhibited regularly at salons in France as well as the World's Fair of 1889 and was also active as a professional singer at the Paris Opéra.

Early life and musical career

Desbordes was born on 4 February 1848 in Angers, at rue St-Aubin, to Joséphine-Louise Boutaire and François Desbordes. As a child, she received her first musical instruction from her father, the organist of Angers Cathedral, who taught her the fundamentals of singing. The family moved to Bordeaux, where her father became director of the orchestra of the theatre, before later settling in Paris. According to an essay by Marc Leclerc, Desbordes approached painting with a musical sensibility, drawing on her formative years in performance, and composing works as with a piece of music.

Desbordes was taught by the Belgian genre painter Alfred Stevens prior to 1876 and became one of his most highly regarded pupils.

Following a salon debut in Antwerp in 1873, Desbordes exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, as well as at provincial and international exhibitions, including in Ghent, Dijon and Bordeaux. She was a member of the Société des Artistes Angevins, the Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs, and the Eclectique.

Personal life

Desbordes married twice, first to the pharmacist Marie Raphaël Grassian in 1884, and later to the French engraver and painter Charles Jouas in 1906.

Although she was based in Paris during much of her career, Desbordes maintained a strong connection to her native Angers, where she had grown up. She was an active member of the Société des artistes angevins and introduced her husband Charles Jouas to the artistic community of Anjou.

Desbordes died on 18 August 1926 at her home in Créteil, near Paris, after a long illness.