Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau (October 4, 1837 – January 28, 1922) was an American academic and salon painter, who was born in Exeter, New Hampshire.

After Bouguereau's wife died, Gardner became his paramour and after the death of his mother, who bitterly opposed the union, she married him in 1896.

She adopted his subjects, compositions, and even his smooth facture, channeling his style so successfully that some of her work might be mistaken for his.

Among her other works were Cinderella, Cornelia and Her Jewels, Corinne, Fortune Teller, Maud Muller, Daphnis and Chloe, Ruth and Naomi, The Farmer's Daughter, The Breton Wedding, and some portraits.

To pay her rent, she spent her time copying paintings by contemporary artists and older masters in prestigious galleries.

"[4] She briefly studied with Jean-Baptiste-Ange Tissier before leaving in 1865 to join an independent cooperative women's studio.

She circumvented this restriction by donning male attire to gain admittance to the all-male drawing school at Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins et de la Savonnerie.

In 1873, Gardner was finally admitted to the previously all-male Académie Julian, where she studied with Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and Bouguereau.

[5] Gardner exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

Like the artist Rosa Bonheur, she applied to the police for a permit that would allow her to wear men's attire so she could attend life classes at the famous Gobelins tapestry works.

[7] She was an astute businesswoman and an excellent linguist, switching easily from her native English to French, Italian or German in order to make her guests and potential clients feel at ease.