Date : 1785
Material : Oil on canvas
Acquisition : Don de Julia A. Berwind (1953)
| Item 14 on 23
French Painting
Painting (Autoportrait)
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| Description |  |
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Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was first apprenticed to a miniature painter and later, in 1769, studied the art of the pastel with Maurice Quentin de la Tour. The rich palette and fine detail in the present picture, one of the earliest of her major works in oils, reflect her earlier training. In 1783, when Labille-Guiard and Vigée Le Brun were admitted to the French Royal Academy, the number of women artists eligible for membership was limited to four, and this painting, which was exhibited to an admiring audience at the Salon of 1785, has been interpreted as a propaganda piece, arguing for the place of women in the Academy. The artist's fashionable dress asserts her feminity. The feminist mood is emphasized by the presence of her pupils and the statue of the Vestal Virgin in the backgroung.
Labille-Guiard achieved a certain success at the court and, having peinted a number of portraits of the aunts of Louis XVI, she came to be known as Peintre des Mesdames. However, she sympathized with the Revolution and, unlike Vigée le Brun, she remained in France throughout her life.
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Self-portrait
A self-portrait is a portrait where the artist is also the subject. Usually it is in the form of a painting, drawing, or similar graphic image
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