Marie-Louise Yes

Marie-Louise Jaÿ (born July 1, 1838 in Samoëns in Savoy , † 1925 in Paris ) was a French entrepreneur, patron and art collector. Together with her husband Ernest Cognacq (1839–1928) the founder of the large department store La Samaritaine .

She left her home in search of work and worked in the Paris shop "La nouvelle Héloise", where she met her future husband. As a result, she became the first saleswoman in the clothing department at le Bon Marché .

In 1872 she married Cognacq and the two established their own business. La Samariitaine proved to be a great success and, with the new buildings in 1910 and 1933, rose to become one of the major Parisian department stores with 8,000 employees and 47,000 m² of retail space.

Since the two remained childless, they set up a charitable foundation in 1916. The couple's art collection is now in the Musée Cognacq-Jay , which the surviving spouse bequeathed to the city of Paris. It contains works by François Boucher , Jean-Honoré Fragonard , Jean-Baptiste Greuze , Maurice Quentin de La Tour , Sir Thomas Lawrence , Hubert Robert , Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , and Jean-Antoine Watteau , among others .

literature

• Ferdinand Laudet: La Samaritaine, le génie et la générosité de deux grands commercants , Paris 1933
• Meredith L. Clausen: Frantz Jourdain and the Samaritaine: Art Nouveau theory and criticism , Leiden 1987