Labille-Guiard’s self-portrait with her students Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond is one of the most remarkable images of women’s art education in early modern Europe. In 1783 when Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun were admitted to the French Royal Academy, the number of women artists eligible for membership was limited to four. This canvas, shown with great success at the Salon of 1785, has been interpreted as a means of advocating their cause. As in most eighteenth-century artists’ self-portraits, Labille-Guiard depicted herself in impractically elegant clothing. Primarily a portraitist, she had especially faithful patrons in Louis XV’s daughters, known as Mesdames de France.
#5019. Self-portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761-1818) and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond (died 1788)
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5019. Self-portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761-1818) and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond (died 1788)
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Fig. 1. Painting in frame: overall
Fig. 2. Painting in frame: corner
Fig. 3. Painting in frame: angled corner
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Fig. 4. Profile drawing of frame. W 5 5/16 in. 13.6 cm (T. Newbery)
Artwork Details
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Title:Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) and Marie Marguerite Carraux de Rosemond (1765–1788)
Artist:Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (French, Paris 1749–1803 Paris)
Date:1785
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:83 x 59 1/2 in. (210.8 x 151.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Julia A. Berwind, 1953
Object Number:53.225.5
Studying first with François Élie Vincent (1708–1790), a miniaturist whose Paris studio was in the same street as her father's shop, Adélaïde Labille embarked upon her career before she was twenty. In 1769 she married Nicolas Guiard, from whom she separated in 1779. She learned the techniques of pastel from Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788), and then in 1776 entered the studio of her childhood friend François André Vincent (1746–1816), François Élie's son, to study oil painting. Labille-Guiard was exclusively a portraitist (then considered an appropriate genre for a woman); she was a fine painter in oils but may have preferred the pastel medium. Together with Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842), she was admitted in 1783 to full membership in the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and she exhibited at least ten pastels at the Salon that year. Later, she was taken up by the Mesdames de France, the elderly maiden aunts of Louis XVI (1754–1793) who became her most important patrons. However, Labille-Guiard was not ambitious for a society clientele. She was instead politically motivated and devoted herself to the teaching and advancement of women artists, seeking equal rights for them at the Académie. She stayed in France throughout the Revolution and secured commissions from several of its leading figures. In 1800, she married the painter Vincent.
Labille-Guiard exhibited this work at the Salon of 1785. A contemporary critic called it not only her most beautiful portrait, but one of the finest paintings at the Salon that year. She depicts herself at work in her atelier, palette in hand, box of paints to her right, a porte-crayon and a scroll of paper or canvas on the stool in the foreground. Her beautiful dress and beribboned straw hat are rich in color and complex in execution; she describes the reflection of the blue fabric in the parquet at her feet. Likewise, the inclusion of her pupils offers Labille-Guiard the opportunity to wrestle with the complexities of composition. Their relationship and the fall of light over their faces show her skill as a painter. The Museum also owns a trois crayons study in chalk for the heads of these pupils (1998.186), in which Labille-Guiard experiments with proximity and light.
Marie Gabrielle Capet was Labille-Guiard's favorite student. A miniaturist and pastel portraitist in her own right, she lived with Labille-Guiard before and after the artist's marriage to Vincent, and continued to care for him after Labille-Guiard's death.
[Francesca Whitlum-Cooper 2010]
Inscription: Signed and dated (left, on easel): Labille fme Guiard / 1785.
the artist, Paris (1785–d. 1803; posthumous inv., April 1803); her second husband, the painter François André Vincent, Paris (1803–d. 1816); his brother-in-law, Marie François Griois, Paris (1816–d. 1824); Auguste François Griois, Paris (1824–at least 1848); his widow, Virginie Barry, Madame Auguste François Griois, Paris (until d. 1878; offered to the Louvre and declined); their son, Auguste Griois, Paris (from 1878); his widow, Madame Auguste Griois, Paris (until 1905; sold to Gimpel & Wildenstein); [Gimpel & Wildenstein, Paris and New York, from 1905; sold to Guinle]; Eduardo Palassin Guinle, Rio de Janeiro (until d. 1912; his estate, 1912–15; sold to Wildenstein); [Gimpel & Wildenstein, New York, 1915–18; sold for $98,000 to Berwind]; Edward J. Berwind, The Elms, Newport, R.I. (1918–d. 1936); his sister, Julia A. Berwind, The Elms (1936–53)
Paris. Salon. August 25–?September 25, 1785, no. 101 (as "Un Tableau (Portrait) de trois Figures en pied, représentant une femme occupée à peindre & deux Élèves la regardant. 6 pieds 6 pouces, sur 4 pieds 8 pouces").
Paris. Galerie Bonne-Nouvelle. "Association des artistes: Ouvrages de peinture, sculpture et architecture exposés à la Galerie Bonne-Nouvelle, au profit de la caisse des secours et pensions de l'association, troisième année," January 1848, no. 53 (as "Portrait de l'auteur, de Mme Bervic et de Mlle Capet [1785]," by Madame Guiard-Vincent, lent by M. Griois).
Paris. Jeu de Paume. "Cent portraits de femmes," April 23–July 1, 1909, no. 70 (as "Portrait de Mme Labille-Guiard et de deux de ses élèves, Mlles Capet et Rosemond").
Berlin. Königliche Akademie der Künste. "Ausstellung von Werken Französischer Kunst des XVIII. Jahrhunderts," January 26–March 6, 1910, no. 85 (as "Die Künstlerin und ihre Schülerinnen Marie Capet und Rosemond," lent by Wildenstein).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "French Art: 1200–1900," January 4–March 12, 1932, no. 283 (lent by E. J. Berwind) [commemorative catalogue no. 182].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portrait of the Artist," January 18–March 7, 1972, no. 13.
Paris. Grand Palais. "De David à Delacroix: La peinture française de 1774 à 1830," November 16, 1974–February 3, 1975, no. 112.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "French Painting 1774–1830: The Age of Revolution," March 5–May 4, 1975, no. 112.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "French Painting 1774–1830: The Age of Revolution," June 12–September 7, 1975, no. 112.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "The Eye of Thomas Jefferson," June 5–September 6, 1976, no. 241.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Vanity Fair," December 15, 1977–September 3, 1978, not in catalogue.
Paris. Grand Palais, Galeries nationales, Gras Savoye. "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun," September 23, 2015–January 11, 2016, no. 40.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT.
[anonymous male writer]. Avis important d'une femme sur le sallon de 1785, par Madame E.A.R.T.L.A.D.C.S., dédié aux femmes. Paris, 1785, pp. 28–29 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 344], hails this self-portrait as bringing together the conventions of history painting with those of genre; notes that she hears repeatedly, based on the firmness of execution, decisiveness of tone, etc., that "this woman [the artist] is a man". . . "as if my sex were to be eternally condemned to mediocrity . . .".
Discours sur l'origine, les progrès et l'état actuel de la peinture en France. . . Paris, 1785, p. 39 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 325].
Observations critiques sur les tableaux du sallon, de l'année 1785. Paris, 1785, p. 19 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 326].
Le peintre anglais au salon de peintures, exposées au Louvre en l'année 1785. 1785, p. 24 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 327], remarks that it is astonishingly realistic and that the fabrics are well painted.
Le frondeur ou dialogues sur le sallon. 1785, pp. 38–39 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 329].
Deuxième promenade de critès au sallon. London, 1785, pp. 36–37 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 334], comments on the skill of the artist and the charms of the sitters.
"Observations sur le sallon de 1785." Journal général de France (1785), p. 19 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 339, p. 549], as the most successful of the artist's works at the 1785 Salon; presents Labille-Guiard and Vigée Le Brun as rivals.
Jugement d'un musicien sur le salon de peinture de 1785. Amsterdam, 1785, p. 16 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 341], notes that Labille-Guiard rivals Vigée with several well-composed and well-painted portraits, above all this one.
Inscriptions pour mettre au bas de différens tableaux exposés au Sallon du Louvre, en 1785. London, 1785, p. 7 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 343].
Minos au sallon, ou la gazette infernale, par M. L. B. D. B. Gattières, 1785, p. 22 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 345].
"Arts: Suite de la lettre sur le Salon." Journal de Paris no. 260 (September 17, 1785), p. 1072, admires it as much for the simple and graceful composition as for the finesse of tone.
J. B. Pujoulx. Figaro au sallon de peinture, pièce épisodi-critique, en prose et en vaudevilles. Rome, 1785, p. 20 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 330; by J. B. Pujoulx according to Montaiglon].
L'espion des peintures de l'académie royale. 1785, p. 36 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 337], comments on the attentive reserve of Labille's pupils and admires the composition.
Impromptu sur le sallon des tableaux exposés au Louvre en 1785. Dialogue en vers. London, 1785, pp. 9–10 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 338].
Vers à Madame Guyard sur le sallon de 1785. 1785 [transcribed in Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 362, p. 899].
"Exposition des tableaux au sallon du Louvre, 1785." Journal général de France (1785) [Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 363, pp. 922–23].
"Exposition des tableaux au Louvre." Année litteraire 8 (1785) [transcribed in Collection Deloynes, vol. 14, no. 349, p. 796], notes that this painting met with almost universal approval and is not only Labille-Guiard's most beautiful portrait, but one of the most accomplished of the Salon; reports that Madame Adélaïde offered to buy it for 10,000 livres.
Louis Petit de Bachaumont. Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lettres en France 30 (1785), pp. 183–84; reprinted in B. Fort, "Les Salons des 'Mémoires secrets,' 1767–1787," Paris, 1999, p. 297, fig. 53], as a "tableau historié," her most striking painting and generally admired.
"Exposition des tableaux au Salon du Louvre." Mercure de France (October 1, 1785), pp. 738, 757–58 [see Passez 1973 for date], believes this painting places Labille-Guiard among the best portraitists of the Salon; comments on the strides she has made, noting that this work does not resemble any previously shown by the artist, and is superior to all the other pictures exhibited by her this year.
Observations de M. le marquis de S . . . capitaine de cavalerie, sur quelques tableaux exposés cette année au Salon. 1785 [transcribed in Collection Deloynes, vol. 50, no. 1345, pp. 293–94], calls it inferior to Vestier's portrait of his daughter at an easel, but not without merit; finds that the heads of the standing figures are not set off sufficiently, while the body of the painter stands out too much.
Lettre à Émilie, sur quelques tableaux du Sallon. 1785, p. 6 [Collection Deloynes, vol. 50, no. 1351].
J. Lebreton. "Notice nécrologique sur Madame Vincent née Labille." Nouvelles des arts 2 (1803), p. 5 [see Ref. Brejon de Lavergnée 1976].
Paul Mantz. "Les portraitistes du XVIIIe siècle: IV." L'artiste 12 (July 15, 1854), p. 178.
Jules Renouvier. Histoire de l'art pendant la Révolution. Paris, 1863, p. 360, states that during the years IV (1795–96), VI (1797–98), and VIII (1799–1800) of the Revolution, Labille-Guiard exhibited numerous portraits, including this one.
Frédéric Reiset. Notice des dessins, cartons, pastels, miniatures et émaux exposés . . . au Musée Impérial du Louvre. Paris, 1869, p. 326.
Spire Blondel. L'art pendant la Révolution. Paris, 1887, p. 58.
G. de Leris. "Les femmes à l'Académie de Peinture." L'art 45 (1888), p. 130.
Henri Bouchot. "Le portrait-miniature en France." Gazette des beaux-arts, 3rd ser., 11 (1894), p. 246.
Baron Roger Portalis. "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749–1803)." Gazette des beaux-arts 27 (1902), pp. 100–103, 107, ill. (engraving by Dujardin), as Labille-Guiard's most important painting; discusses the provenance and provides information about Marie-Gabrielle Capet and Mademoiselle Carreaux de Rosemond.
Clara Erskine Clement. Women in the Fine Arts: From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. Boston, 1904, p. 202.
Henri Bouchot. La miniature française, 1750–1825. Vol. 2, Paris, 1907, p. 62.
Pierre de Nolhac. Madame Vigée-Le Brun, peintre de la reine Marie-Antoinette, 1755–1842. Paris, 1908, p. 54, quotes the "Journal général de France," in which our painting is mentioned in a discussion of the relative merits of Labille-Guiard and Vigée Le Brun.
G. Brière. "Catalogue critique des œuvres d'artistes français réunies à l'exposition de cent portraits de femmes du XVIIIe siècle." Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français (1909), pp. 130–31, no. 70.
P.-André Lemoisne. "Les cent portraits de femmes." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 25 (June 1909), pp. 411–12, ill., admires the vigor of the drawing and the fabrics and accessories, but finds the figures heavy.
Charles Saunier. "Exposition de cent portraits de femmes des écoles anglaise et française du XVIIe siècle." Les arts 8, no. 91 (July 1909), ill. p. 17.
André Pératé. "Notes on the Portrait Exhibition in Paris–II." Burlington Magazine 15 (July 1909), p. 212.
Armand Dayot. "Les peintres de la femme au XVIIIe siècle, école française." L'art et les artistes 9 (April–September 1909), p. 73.
Armand Dayot and Claude Phillips. Maîtres du XVIIIe siècle: Cents portraits de femmes des écoles anglaise et française. Paris, 1910, p. 70, ill., note that it appears in Martini's engraving of the 1785 Salon; provide provenance information.
Louis Réau. L'art français aux Etats-Unis. Paris, 1926, p. 142.
Georg Biermann. "Ein Doppelbildnis der Mme Labille-Guiard." Der Cicerone 19 (1927), p. 8.
Charles Oulmont. Les femmes peintres du XVIIIe siècle. Paris, 1928, p. 63, pl. 41.
Hans Vollmer inAllgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. Ed. Hans Vollmer. Vol. 22, Leipzig, 1928, p. 168, as in the Berwind collection.
Esther Singleton. Old World Masters in New World Collections. New York, 1929, pp. 324–26, ill.
Georges Wildenstein. "Paintings from America in the French Exhibition." The Fine Arts 18 (January 1932), pp. 24, 54, ill.
Georges Wildenstein. "L'exposition de l'art français à Londres: Le XVIIIe siècle." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 7 (1932), fig. 8.
Charles Sterling inCommemorative Catalogue of French Art, 1200–1900: Royal Academy of Arts, London. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1933, pp. 49–50, no. 182.
comte Arnauld Doria. Gabrielle Capet. Paris, 1934, pp. 5, 15, 88, no. 4, ill. (frontispiece), identifies the bust as Pajou's portrait of the artist's father and the statue as a vestal virgin.
Paul Ratouis de Limay. Le pastel en France au XVIIIème siècle. Paris, 1946, p. 105, quotes from a letter in the "Correspondance générale de la Maison du Roi" of November 8, 1785 in which the writer observes that in spite of the success of this painting, the artist has little money and few commissions.
Michel Florisoone. La peinture française: Le dix-huitième siècle. Paris, 1948, pp. 116, 129, pl. 118.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 58.
Yvon Bizardel. "Les académiciennes au XVIIIe siècle." Le jardin des arts no. 31 (May 1957), ill. p. 439.
"Ninety-first Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1960–1961." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 20 (October 1961), ill. p. 44.
Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Four French Paintings from the Berwind Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 20 (May 1962), pp. 265, 268–70, ill. (frontispiece).
"Nouvelles acquisitions dans les musées durant l'année 1961." Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts no. 1118 (March 1962), fig. 4.
René Gimpel. Diary of an Art Dealer. English ed. New York, 1966, p. 33, mentions it under June 10, 1918 as sold to E. J. Berwind for $18,000.
James Laver. "Fashion, Art, and Beauty." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 26 (November 1967), ill. p. 124.
Anne-Marie Passez. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1749–1803: Biographie et catalogue raisonné de son oeuvre. Paris, 1973, pp. 19, 26–27, 48–49, 154–59, 308, 313–14, no. 62, pl. 49, cites critical reaction to this picture in 1785; reproduces a painted study for the figure of the artist (no. 61, pl. 48), mentions an engraving after the picture by H. Valentin, and reproduces an engraving by Bornet after Martini, in which it can be seen installed in the 1785 Salon (fig. 2); publishes correspondence from 1878 between the Louvre and the Griois family, in which the Louvre refused it because it was not of sufficient merit.
Pierre Rosenberg inFrench Painting, 1774–1830: The Age of Revolution. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1975, pp. 517–18, 558, no. 112, ill. p. 75 [French ed., "De David à Delacroix: La peinture française de 1774 à 1830, Paris, pp. 512–13, no. 112, pl. 31], as "the most ambitious and most nearly perfect painting of a very talented and sophisticated artist"; notes that in a 1787 Salon livret [La Plume du Coq de Micille . . .not legible in the Collection Deloynes microfiche] Jean Laurent Mosnier is advised, in reference to his "Portrait of the Artist in his Studio", "not to make too just a counterpart to Mme Guiard's painting".
Hugo Munsterberg. A History of Women Artists. New York, 1975, pp. 40–41, ill. (overall and detail on title page).
Philip Conisbee. "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Biographie et catalogue raisonné de son oeuvre. By Anne Marie Passez." Burlington Magazine 117 (March 1975), p. 181.
Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée inThe Eye of Thomas Jefferson. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1976, pp. 154–59, 313–14, 371, no. 241, ill.
Karen Petersen and J.J. Wilson. Women Artists: Recognition and Reappraisal from the Early Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. New York, 1976, pp. 58–59, ill.
Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin inWomen Artists: 1550–1950. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York, 1976, pp. 185–86, 195, claims that the inclusion of the artist's pupils was a way of symbolically circumventing the small quota of four women allowed as members of the Academy and believes this point was not lost on Salon spectators.
Donna G. Bachmann and Sherry Piland. Women Artists: An Historical, Contemporary and Feminist Bibliography. Metuchen, N.J., 1978, ill. p. 122.
Elsa Honig Fine. Women & Art: A History of Women Painters and Sculptors from the Renaissance to the 20th Century. Montclair, N.J., 1978, p. 48, fig. 3-4.
Germaine Greer. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. New York, 1979, pp. 267–69, ill.
Ann Sutherland Harris. "Review of Anne Marie Passez, Adelaide Labille-Guiard, Paris, 1973." Art Bulletin 62 (September 1980), p. 495.
Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock. Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology. New York, 1981, p. 33, fig. 21.
Christine Havice. "In a Class by Herself: 19th Century Images of the Woman Artist as Student." Woman's Art Journal 2 (Spring/Summer 1981), pp. 35–36.
Eric M. Zafran. The Rococo Age: French Masterpieces of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 1983, p. 93.
Danielle Rice. "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Biographie et catalogue raisonné de son oeuvre, by Anne Marie Passez." Woman's Art Journal 6, no. 2 (1985–86), p. 55, rejects Passez's identification of no. 61 in her catalogue raisonné as an autograph study and considers it a copy.
Edith Krull. Women in Art. London, 1986, pp. 40–41, ill. (color).
Hugo Douwes Dekker. "Adelaïde Labille-Guiard, 1749–1803: Tegen wil en dank rivale van Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1755–1842." Tableau 8 (February 1986), ill. p. 52.
Jean-François Heim, Claire Béraud, and Philippe Heim. Les salons de peinture de la Révolution française, 1789–1799. Paris, 1989, ill. p. 18.
Joseph Baillio. The Winds of Revolution. Exh. cat., Wildenstein. New York, 1989, p. 40.
Wendy Slatkin. Women Artists in History: From Antiquity to the 20th Century. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1990, pp. 88–89, ill., as "a public introduction of the aspiring painters," Capet and Carreaux de Rosemond; notes that Labille-Guiard faced financial difficulties in 1785, and her aristocratic dress and coiffure is thus "an appeal to potential aristocratic patrons".
Marie-Jo Bonnet. "La révolution d'Adélaïde Labille-Guiard et Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, ou deux femmes peintres en quête d'un espace dans la société." Les femmes et la Révolution française. Vol. 2, Toulouse, 1990, pp. 338, 340, ill. p. 339 (perspectival sketch) and unnumbered pl.
Isabel Schulz. Künstlerinnen: Leben · Werk · Rezeption. Hamburg, 1991, pp. 75, 77, colorpl. 23.
José-Luis de Los Llanos. Fragonard et le dessin français au XVIIIe siècle dans les collections du Petit Palais. Exh. cat., Petit Palais. Paris, 1992, p. 99, ill.
Susan Hood. "Re-Reading Constance Mayer's 'Full-length Portrait of a Father and His Daughter' (1801)." Southeast College Art Conference Review 12, no. 2 (1992), p. 85, fig. 4, compares this painting with Mayer's self-portrait with her father, exhibited at the Salon of 1801.
Marie H. Trope-Podell. "'Portraits historiés' et portraits collectifs dans la critique française du XVIIIe siècle." Revue de l'art no. 109 (1995), pp. 42–43, fig. 2.
Aileen Ribeiro. The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820. New Haven, 1995, p. 14, colorpl. 18, ill. in color on dust jacket and frontispiece.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 388, ill.
Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met with Leon Golub and Nancy Spero." New York Times (January 5, 1996), p. C5, ill.
Kathleen Nicholson inThe Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Vol. 18, New York, 1996, p. 576, ill.
Mary D. Sheriff. The Exceptional Woman: Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and the Cultural Politics of Art. Chicago, 1996, p. 187, fig. 26.
Vivian P. Cameron inDictionary of Women Artists. Ed. Delia Gaze. London, 1997, vol. 2, p. 815, suggests this work was inspired by Vigée-Lebrun's "Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat".
James David Draper inAugustin Pajou: Royal Sculptor, 1730–1809. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, p. 259, fig. 165 (detail).
Frances Borzello. Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits. New York, 1998, p. 82, ill. and frontispiece (color detail), comments that the bust of Labille-Guiard's father is "the only male presence in this painting filled with female pride and energy"; mentions that Jean Laurent Mosnier's "Portrait of the Artist in His Studio," exhibited in 1787, follows the same format.
Gen Doy. Women and Visual Culture in Nineteenth–Century France. London, 1998, pp. 52, 142–43, discusses the text "Avis important d'une femme sur le sallon de 1785".
Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, pp. 184–86, ill. [text similar to Kimmelman 1996].
Emma Barker. "Women Artists and the French Academy: Vigée-Lebrun in the 1780s." Gender and Art. Ed. Gill Perry. New Haven, 1999, p. 117, pl. 84.
Thomas W. Gaehtgens. "Eine gemalte Künstlergenealogie zu Marie-Gabrielle Capets Atelierszene in der Münchener Neuen Pinakothek." Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte 38 (1999), p. 214, fig. 4, believes the composition of Marie-Gabrielle Capet's "Atelier Scene" of 1808 is indebted to our picture.
Renate Berger inZwischen Ideal und Wirklichkeit: Künstlerinnen der Goethe-Zeit zwischen 1750 und 1850. Ed. Bärbel Kovalevski. Exh. cat., Schlossmuseum, Gotha. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany, 1999, pp. 17, 27, fig. 5.
Perrin Stein in Perrin Stein and Mary Tavener Holmes. Eighteenth-Century French Drawings in New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1999, pp. 188–90 n. 3, ill., relates it to the artist's study for the heads of the young women (no. 82, 1998.186), made "to explore the nuances of light and cast shadow".
Tony Halliday. Facing the Public: Portraiture in the Aftermath of the French Revolution. Manchester, 1999, pp. 18, 60 n. 9, fig. 2.
Liana De Girolami Cheney, Alicia Craig Faxon, and Kathleen Lucey Russo. Self-Portraits by Women Painters. Aldershot, England, 2000, pp. 123–24, 208–9, colorpl. XXII.
Frances Borzello. A World of Our Own: Women as Artists Since the Renaissance. New York, 2000, pp. 88–89, ill.
Laura Elizabeth Auricchio. "Portraits of Impropriety: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and the Careers of Professional Women Artists in Late Eighteenth-Century Paris." PhD diss., Columbia University, 2000, pp. 2–3, 7–8, 130–57, 230, fig. 2, as "an unusually versatile advertising vehicle" and a descendant of Velázquez's "Las Meninas".
Françoise Pitt-Rivers. Madame Vigée Le Brun. Paris, 2001, p. 76, fig. 5.
Elizabeth E. Guffey. Drawing an Elusive Line: The Art of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. Newark, Del., 2001, p. 173.
Astrid Reuter. Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist: Gestaltungsräume einer Künstlerin um 1800. Berlin, 2002, pp. 94–95, 98, fig. 31.
Gerrit Walczak. "Jean-Laurent Mosnier: Fame, Revolution and Early Exile." Apollo 156 (September 2002), pp. 3, 10 n. 5, calls Mosnier's "Self-Portrait" of 1786 an ambitious answer to this one.
Melissa Hyde in Eik Kahng and Marianne Roland Michel. Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. Dallas, 2002, p. 76, fig. 2.
Britta C. Dwyer. "Book reviews [review of Borzello 1998]." Woman's Art Journal 23 (Spring–Summer 2002), p. 43.
Laura Auricchio. "The Laws of 'Bienséance' and the Gendering of Emulation in Eighteenth-Century French Art Education." Eighteenth-Century Studies [Forum: Emulation in France, 1750–1800] 36 (Winter 2003), p. 235–39, ill., notes that "this image constructs the female 'atelier' as an alternative model of artistic education driven by a new understanding of emulation [as defined in Thomas Crow's, "Emulation: David, Drouais, and Girodet in the Art of Revolutionary France," New Haven, 2006] . . . that removes all hint of competition".
Melissa Hyde. "Under the Sign of Minerva: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard's 'Portrait of Madame Adélaïde'." Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe. Ed. Melissa Hyde and Jennifer Milam. Aldershot, England, 2003, pp. 150–53, ill.
Joseph Baillio et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., Inc. New York, [2005], pp. 60, 74, no. 65, ill.
Heidi A. Strobel. "Royal 'Matronage' of Women Artists in the Late-18th Century." Woman's Art Journal 26 (Fall 2005–Winter 2006), pp. 6–7, ill. on cover (color).
Olivier Blanc. Portraits de femmes artistes et modèles à l'époque de Marie-Antoinette. Paris, 2006, pp. 78, 80–81 n. 135, ill. p. 82 (color), identifies the pupils as probably "Melles Capet and Avril".
Heather Belnap Jensen. "The 'Journal des Dames et des Modes': Fashioning Women in the Arts, c. 1800–1815." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 5 (Spring 2006), fig. 6 (color) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/spring06/172-the-journal-des-dames-et-des-modes-fashioning-women-in-the-arts-c-1800-1815], contrasts it to an 1803 fashion plate of a woman sketching an antique bust, which she interprets as “a declaration that women artists could not escape the constant monitoring of their activity—or the scepter of men's dominance in this arena”
.
Laura Auricchio. "Self-Promotion in Adélaïde Labille-Guiard's 1785 'Self-Portrait with Two Students'." Art Bulletin 89 (March 2007), pp. 45–62, ill. (color), notes that while Labille-Guiard borrows from traditions of self-portraiture, she "taints these conventions with tinges of alluring sexuality and brash commerce"; finds the display of the artist's physical attractions "all the more striking when seen against the more demurely rendered figures of the two students" and sees a source for her pose and costume in engravings published in the "Galerie des Modes et des Costumes" of 1784.
Lesley Stevenson inInspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past. Ed. Ann Dumas. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Denver, 2007, p. 187.
Philippe Bordes. "Portraiture in the Mode of Genre: A Social Interpretation." French Painting in the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Philip Conisbee. Washington, 2007, p. 258.
Old Master Drawings and Oil Sketches. Exh. cat., W. M. Brady & Co. New York, 2008, unpaginated, under no. 27, fig. 47.
Mary Sprinson de Jesús. "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard's Pastel Studies of the Mesdames de France." Metropolitan Museum Journal 43 (2008), pp. 159–61, 167–68, 170 nn. 5–8, fig. 4 (color), mentions Jacques-Louis David's 1787 "Death of Socrates" (31.45) in relation to this work, as both emphasize "the importance of serving as an inspiration and guide to the young—of one's gender".
Nathalie Lemoine-Bouchard. Les peintres en miniature actifs en France, 1650–1850. Paris, 2008, p. 317, ill.
Laura Auricchio. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution. Los Angeles, 2009, pp. 40, 42–47, 49, 53–55, 76, 105–6, 114 nn. 102–3, 106, 108, 110, 115, p. 122, fig. 30 (color), suggests that Labille-Guiard took inspiration from Antoine Coypel's 1698 "Portrait of the Artist with His Son, Charles Antoine" (fig. 31, Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Besançon) which was engraved.
Laura Auricchio. "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Brief Life of an Enterprising Artist: 1749–1803." Harvard Magazine (September–October 2009), p. 36, ill. p. 37 (color).
Katharine Baetjer and Marjorie Shelley. "Pastel Portraits: Images of 18th-Century Europe." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 68 (Spring 2011), p. 44.
Neil Jeffares. "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard." Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800. 2012, pp. 1–3 [online edition, http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/LabilleGuiard.pdf, accessed 10/04/2012].
Melissa Lee Hyde inStolthet & Fördom: Kvinna och konstnär i Frankrike och Sverige 1750–1860. Exh. cat., Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, 2012, pp. 36, 271 n. 8, ill. p. 32 (color).
Marie-Josèphe Bonnet. Liberté, égalité, exclusion: femmes peintres en révolution, 1770–1804. Paris, 2012, pp. 57–62, 177 n. 1, pp. 196, 202, colorpl. 11.
Elizabeth C. Mansfield. The Perfect Foil: François-André Vincent and the Revolution in French Painting. Minneapolis, 2012, pp. 123–25, 127, fig. 5.19, discusses the painting as an example of the artistic exchange between Labille-Guiard and Vincent; emphasizes its function as “a statement of aesthetic and professional aims” and as a successful form of advertising [see Auricchio 2007]; argues that it inspired Vincent’s "Zeuxis Selecting Models from the Most Beautiful Women of Croton" (1789, Musée du Louvre, Paris), which she interprets as a disguised promotional self-portrait produced during a period of professional stagnation.
Jean-Pierre Cuzin. François-André Vincent, 1746–1816: Entre Fragonard et David. Paris, 2013, pp. 256, 446, fig. 85 (color).
Jessica L. Fripp. "Review of Mansfield 2012." Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 12 (Autumn 2013) [http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn13/fripp-reviews-the-perfect-foil].
Christophe Marcheteau de Quinçay inMarie-Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818): une virtuose de la miniature. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen. [Ghent], 2014, p. 11, fig. 1 (color).
Susan L. Siegfried. "The Visual Culture of Fashion and the Classical Ideal in Post-Revolutionary France." Art Bulletin 97 (March 2015), p. 84.
Xavier Salmon inÉlisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. Ed. Joseph Baillio and Xavier Salmon. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Galeries nationales. Paris, 2015, p. 145, under no. 41.
Joseph Baillio inÉlisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. Ed. Joseph Baillio and Xavier Salmon. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Galeries nationales. Paris, 2015, p. 28.
Katharine Baetjer inÉlisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. Ed. Joseph Baillio and Xavier Salmon. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Galeries nationales. Paris, 2015, pp. 57, 142–43, 350, no. 40, ill. (color, overall and detail).
Pierre de Nolhac. Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun: Peintre de Marie-Antoinette. Gennevilliers, 2015, pp. 82–84, ill. (color).
Cécile Berly. Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Peindre et écrire Marie-Antoinette et son temps. Paris, 2015, p. 51, fig. 17 (color).
Joseph Baillio inVigée Le Brun. Ed. Joseph Baillio, Katharine Baetjer, and Paul Lang. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2016, p. 21 [English and French language Canadian eds., "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun," Ottawa, 2016].
Katharine Baetjer inVigée Le Brun. Ed. Joseph Baillio, Katharine Baetjer, and Paul Lang. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2016, pp. 42–43, fig. 21 (color) [English and French language Canadian eds., "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun," Ottawa, 2016].
Frances Borzello. Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits. rev. ed. London, 2016, pp. 23, 91, ill. p. 92 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 425, no. 304, ill. pp. 318, 425 (color).
Melissa Hyde. "'Peinte par elle-même?': Women Artists, Teachers, and Students from Anguissola to Haudebourt-Lescot." Arts et savoirs 6 (2016), pp. 10–12, 17 nn. 48, 51 [https://journals.openedition.org/aes/794], presents it as an example of the theme of "daughterly filiation".
Séverine Sofio. "'Portrait of the Artist at Work': Painting Self-Portraits in Late Eighteenth-Century France." Arts et savoirs 6 (2016), pp. 3, 5–6, 18 nn. 23, 26, ill. (color) [http://journals.openedition.org/aes/795], sees it as a response to Vigée Le Brun's "Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat" (National Gallery, London); argues that Labille-Guiard "depicts herself as the master of a school" and offers "a discreet homage" to "those who had supported her candidacy for admission" to the Académie, whereas Vigée Le Brun depicts herself "as an accomplished woman and artist, who owes nothing to anyone, everything to her own talents".
Yuriko Jackall inAmerica Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2017, pp. 18, 292, 295.
Philippe Bordes inAmerica Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2017, p. 117 n. 9.
Melissa Hyde inAmerica Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2017, p. 81, fig. 13 (color).
Caroline Chapman. Eighteenth-Century Women Artists: Their Trials, Tribulations & Triumphs. London, 2017, pp. 49, 54–55, 70, 122, 124, 161, colorpl. 11.
Bridget Quinn. Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in that Order). San Francisco, 2017, pp. 39–42, 44–46, 54, ill. (color).
Diana J. Kostyrko. The Journal of a Transatlantic Art Dealer: René Gimpel 1918–1939. London, 2017, p. 23.
Tableaux, sculptures et dessins anciens et du XIXe siècle. Sotheby's, Paris. June 21, 2018, p. 80, fig. 1 (color), under no. 67.
Charlotte Guichard. La griffe du peintre: La valeur de l'art (1730–1820). [Paris], 2018, pp. 203–5, 208, 210–11, 301, fig. 56, 56 bis (color, overall and detail).
Yuriko Jackall inMaster Paintings Evening Sale. Sotheby's, New York. January 30, 2019, p. 197, fig. 2 (color).
Neil Jeffares. Minutiae at the Met. March 29, 2019, unpaginated [https://neiljeffares.wordpress.com/2019/03/29/minutiae-at-the-met/].
Neil Jeffares. "Foreign Legion." Apollo 189 (April 2019), p. 102, fig. 4 (color).
Katharine Baetjer. French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution. New York, 2019, pp. 328–33, no. 110, ill. pp. 30, 329 (color, overall and detail).
Adeline Collange-Perugi inÉloge du sentiment et de la sensibilité: Peintures françaises du XVIIIe siècle des collections de Bretagne. Ed. Guillaume Kazerouni and Adeline Collange-Perugi. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes and Musée d'Arts de Nantes. Ghent, 2019, p. 254, fig. 94-1 (color).
Carol Santoleri in Katharine Baetjer. French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution. New York, 2019, p. 31.
Séverine Sofio. "Gabrielle Capet’s Collective Self-Portrait: Women and Artistic Legacy in Post-Revolutionary France." Journal18. no. 8, Fall 2019, unpaginated, nn. 12, 18–19, fig. 6 (color) [http://www.journal18.org/4397], calls it "an affectionate record of Capet’s training with her teacher"; creates a contrast with Gabrielle Capet's more intimate, realistic depiction of Labille-Guiard.
Emily A. Beeny inManet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 111 n. 102, compares it to Manet's portrait of Eva Gonzalès (1870, National Gallery, London), calling it the "closest correlate" to Manet's portrait.
Galina Olmsted. Facing the Revolution: Portraits of Women in France and the United States. Exh. cat., Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University. Bloomington, Ind., 2020, unpaginated, fig. 3 (color) [https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/space-of-their-own/].
Holland Cotter. "The Met Casts New Light on Hit Works and History." New York Times (December 25, 2020), p. C1 [online ed., "The Met Casts New Light on its Greatest Hits and History," December 24, 2020, ill. (color, installation view); https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/arts/design/metropolitan-museum-european-paintings-skylights.html].
Amelia Rauser. The Age of Undress: Art, Fashion, and the Classical Ideal in the 1790s. New Haven, 2020, p. 193 n. 1 (under "Drape").
Jessica L. Fripp. Portraiture and Friendship in Enlightenment France. Newark, Delaware, 2020, pp. 104–7, 219 n. 78, ill. on cover and fig. 3.10 (color), argues that the artist's inclusion of Pajou's bust of her father was intended as a demonstration of her propriety, a refutation of the rumors of her affair with Vincent, and a response to Antoine-Joseph Gorsas's backhanded compliment: "(one was happy to pay homage to the father of an artist as amiable as he is understanding.) It shows that someone is looking after her"; states that Pajou's bust was "also a demonstration of the amicable connection between the Labille and Pajou families".
Paris A. Spies-Gans. "Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Revolutionary Painter." Art Herstory (December 18, 2020), fig. 4 (color) [https://artherstory.net/marie-guillemine-benoist-revolutionary-painter/].
Karen Wilkin. "‘A New Look at Old Masters’ Review: In a New Light, Literally." Wall Street Journal (January 9, 2021), ill. (color) [https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-look-at-old-masters-review-in-a-new-light-literally-11610193600].
Séverine Sofio inPeintres femmes, 1780–1830: Naissance d'un combat. Ed. Martine Lacas. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg. Paris, 2021, p. 35, fig. 11 (color).
Martine Lacas inPeintres femmes, 1780–1830: Naissance d'un combat. Ed. Martine Lacas. Exh. cat., Musée du Luxembourg. Paris, 2021, pp. 17, 119, ill. on back cover (color).
Linda Wolk-Simon. "In a New Light." Apollo 193 (March 2021), p. 75, fig. 3 (color, installation view).
Christopher Baker. "Entente cordiale." Apollo 193 (April 2021), p. 77, fig. 2 (color).
Jessica L. Fripp. "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist, Friend, Teacher." Art Herstory (April 11, 2021), ill. (color, overall and detail) [https://artherstory.net/adelaide-labille-guiard-artist-friend-teacher/].
Paris A. Spies-Gans. A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in London and Paris, 1760–1830. London, 2022, pp. 55–58, 191, fig. 14 (color), compares it to Capet's "Atelier Scene (Adélaïde Labille-Guiard Portrays Joseph-Marie Vien)" (1808; Neue Pinakothek, Munich), stating that within the later painting, Capet quoted elements of Labille-Guiard's painting to commemorate "her own professional path, stressing the enduring importance of pedigree and studio training in France's highly regimented, male-dominated art world".
Fabienne Ruppen inRenoir: Rococo Revival. Ed. Alexander Eiling. Exh. cat., Städel Museum. Berlin, 2022, p. 82.
Carole Blumenfeld. "Je déclare vivre de mon art": Dans l'atelier de Marie-Victore Lemoine, Marie-Elisabeth Lemoine, Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet, Marie-Denise Villers. Exh. cat., Musée Fragonard, Grasse. Montreuil, 2023, pp. 35, 37.
Amy Freund and Tom Stammers. "Harping on Patriotism: Female Education Meets Orléanist Ambition in Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust’s 'The Harp Lesson' (1791)." French History 20 (2024), pp. 4, 7,11, fig. 3 (color).
Neil Jeffares. "Marie Marguerite Carraux de Rosemond." Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800. 2024, p. 1 [online edition, http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Carreaux.pdf, accessed 04/16/2024], provides the correct spelling and birthdate of Marie Marguerite Carraux de Rosemond.
Elizabeth A. Pergam. "The Met's Reinstallation of Its European Paintings and Northern Renaissance Galleries Aims to Set Exhibits in Their Global Context." Burlington Magazine 166 (April 2024), p. 393.
Georges de La Tour (French, Vic-sur-Seille 1593–1652 Lunéville)
probably 1630s
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