Cornélie Barbe Hyacinthe Jacquemart, known as Nélie (25 July 1841– 15 May 1912) was a French painter, art collector and patron of the arts. Biography She was born in Paris. Her parents came from Meurthe in 1835 so her father, Joseph, could work as a "relais" (a type of campaign worker) for , a local candidate for National Deputy. Her mother, Marie, may have been a milliner and her father appears to have died shortly after her birth. Much is uncertain, as she later destroyed many early documents, to conceal her plebeian origins. When she displayed an early talent for art, she became a protégée of De Vatry's wife, , and spent summers at their hunting lodge in the former Chaalis Abbey. There, she developed her drawing skills and met many prominent figures who had been involved in the Bourbon Restoration. Thanks to Mme. de Vatry, she was able to study in the workshop of Léon Cogniet, a Professor at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, which did not accept female students at that time. The lessons were given by Cogniet's sister, Marie-Amélie, and consisted largely of copying Cogniet's works. Her first public exposure came from an unusual source. In 1858, Malka Kachwar, the Queen of Oudh, died in Paris on her way home from London. She was buried with great ceremony at Père-Lachaise. Jacquemart was there, with Léon Cogniet, and created numerous sketches of the event. An editor at L'Illustration named Aristide Merille had them made into lithographs by Évremond de Bérard and Jules Worms and published them in the magazine later that year. Her first showing at the Salon came in 1863 when she was only twenty-two. She received several commissions as a result. At the Salon of 1866, one of her works was purchased by the government and was on display at the Palais des Tuileries until it and the building were destroyed during the Commune. In 1867, she was able to travel to Italy, where she studied with Ernest Hébert, Director of the Académie de France à Rome. While she was there, she befriended Geneviève Bréton, a relative of Louis Hachette, who kept a detailed diary that sheds light on Jacquemart's character and activities. Through Bréton, she met the writer , son of the Minister of Education, Victor Duruy, whose portrait she painted. After that, according to Bréton, she thought of little but getting married. Her