Painter. She gained fame as a prolific French painter, sculptor, and designer of the Belle Époque era from 1871 to the start of World War I. Born into a wealthy aristocratic as well as artistic Parisian family, she was the daughter of Viscount Émile Abbéma, stationmaster of Étampes, and the great-granddaughter of Théâtre-Français actress Louise Contat and Count Louis de Narbonne, who served as Minister of War under Louis XVI. Beginning in her early teens, she studied under such notables of the period as Louis Devedeux and later Charles Joshua Chaplin, Jean-Jacques Henner, and Carolus-Duran. She first received recognition for her work at age 23 when she painted a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, who became her lifelong companion. Throughout her career, she painted several portraits of "The Divine Sarah" as well as creating a marble bust and a profile bronze medallion. Her last portrait of Bernhardt was in 1921. She painted panels and murals of many Parisian landmarks, such as the Paris Town Hall, the Paris Opera House, numerous theatres including the "Theatre Sarah Bernhardt", and the "Palace of the Colonial Governor" at Dakar, Senegal. She was a regular participant at the Salon des Artistes Français, receiving a gold medal in 1881 for a pair of decorative panels. Her "Parfums" ceiling for the perfumer Guerlain was done in 1896. Her studio served as a salon for her artistic colleagues. As noted in the oil-on-canvas works "The Butterfly Fairy", which is undated, and "Sarah Bernhardt in a Japanese Garden" in 1885, she gained from the techniques of Chinese and Japanese painters and frequently depicted delicate flowers in her paintings. Among her best-known works are "The Seasons," a four-piece work in 1882; "April Morning, Place de la Concorde," an oil-on-canvas in 1894; "Among the Flowers" in 1892; and "Young Girl with a Blue Ribbon," an undated pastel. Using oil paints, pastels, and watercolor with the light brush strokes of Impressionism, she painted portraits of contemporary notables. Besides Bernhard's portraits, she painted portraits of actress Jeanne Samary; Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil; her art instructors Carolus-Duran and Charles Chaplin; Suez Canal developer Ferdinand de Lesseps; architect Charles Garnier; and a host of other high-society figures. As an author and illustrator, she was a regular contributor to the professional journals "Gazette des Beaux-Arts" and "L'Art." Among her professional accolades, she was nominated as "Official Painter of the Third Republic"; awarded a bronze and silver medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle; and in 1906 made a Chevalier of the Order of the Légion d'honneur, which is rarely awarded to a female. From 1892 to 1911, she had eight exhibits at the Galerie Georges Petit of portraits, panneaux décoratifs, designs for fans, seascapes and floral still-lives in both watercolor and oils. Besides Musée des Beaux-Arts in Pau, France, her works are on exhibition at the Metropolitan in New York City, Rutgers University in New Jersey, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.