Amélie Beaury-Saurel

In 19th-century Paris the state art school, the École des Beaux-Arts, still refused to admit women. The alternative was the Académie Julian, a private studio founded by Rodolphe Julian that took in the women and foreigners the official school turned away. Amélie Beaury-Saurel, born in Barcelona to a French family, enrolled there as a student and never really left.

She built a solid career in portraits and pastels, showing regularly at the Salon, and in 1894 painted the work she is best remembered for, Dans le bleu, 'Into the Blue', a dark-haired woman leaning on her elbow with a cigarette, wrapped in a haze of blue smoke and thought. It hangs today in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse.

The year after, she married Rodolphe Julian and took charge of the women's ateliers, choosing the models and running the classes. When he died in 1907 she became director of the whole academy, and held the post until her own death in 1924.