Apolline Lacroix (née Biffe; 1805–1896) was a French actress who married Paul Lacroix, the curator of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris, on May 7, 1834. She also lived with Paul Lacroix's collaborator, art collector Théophile Thoré-Bürger, for more than a decade. Their affair only ended with his death in 1869.
On Thoré-Bürger's death, she inherited his valuable art collection, which included paintings by Vermeer and The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius that Thoré-Bürger had found in Brussels 200 years after its creation. Subsequently, much of the collection was sold off.
References
- ^ Charreire, Magali (2016). "Vermeer à l'Arsenal : la bibliothèque-musée de Paul Lacroix" [Vermeer at the Arsenal: Paul Lacroix's library-museum]. Littératures (in French). 75 (75): 45–56. doi:10.4000/litteratures.668.
- Jowell, Frances Suzman (2003). "Thoré-Bürger's Art Collection: "A Rather Unusual Gallery of Bric-à-Brac". Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art. 30 (1/2): 54 –119 (61, 68). doi:10.2307/3780951. JSTOR 3780951.
- Jowell, Frances Suzman (2001). "From Thoré to Bürger: The image of Dutch art before and after the Musées de la Hollande". Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum. 49 (1): 43–60. JSTOR 40383198.