Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
Encyclopedia
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (11 April 1749 – 24 April 1803), also known as Adélaïde Labille-Guiard des Vertus, was a French
miniaturist and portrait
painter
.
, the youngest of eight children, to a bourgeois family. Her father, the haberdasher
Claude-Edme Labille, owned a shop named 'A La Toilette' situated in the Rue neuve des Petits Champs in the parish of Saint-Eustache
. (Jeanne Bécu, the future Madame du Barry
, worked on the same street, and would eventually become good friends with Labille-Guiard.)
Her older sister, Félicité, whose date of birth is unknown, married to the miniaturist Jean Antoine Gros, a notable painting collector, in 1764 in the Saint-Eustache parish of Paris. It is unknown whether Adélaïde kept in touch with Jean Antoine Gros, his second wife, the pastel artist Pierrette Madeleine Cecile Durant, or his son, the famous Napoleonic painter Antoine Jean Gros, following her sister's death in 1768.
s, and oil painting
s, we know little about her training. Much of this lack of information is due to the practices of the time, which dictated that masters (who were predominantly male) should not take on young female pupils, as society perceived that young females would not be able to follow instruction alongside young men. However, some masters still took on young female pupils as a form of revenge against the master's other pupils.
During adolescence, Labille-Guiard studied miniature painting
with the oil painter
François-Elie Vincent
, a family friend. Due to Vincent's connections, her early works were exhibited at the Académie de Saint-Luc
. During this apprenticeship, she would meet her future husband, Vincent's son François-André Vincent
.
After marrying Louis-Nicolas Guiard in 1769, she apprenticed with the pastel master Quentin de la Tour until Tour's marriage in 1774. After the apprenticeship, she exhibited one of her pastels of a magistrate at the Académie de Saint-Luc. She would continue displaying her works at the Académie de Saint-Luc until it closed in 1776. After that, she would display her works at the Salon de la Correspondance.
.
The couple separated in 1777, and by 27 July 1779, were officially separated. Both kept the property they had had prior to entering marriage, since separation of property already existed under the Old Regime. After Revolutionary legislation permitted, they divorced in 1793, but Labille-Guiard retained the name Guiard, and remains known to the art world as Labille-Guiard. Thereafter, she earned a living by teaching painting.
On 8 June 1799, Labille-Guiard remarried to François-André Vincent
, winner of the Prix de Rome
in 1768 and a member of the Royal Academy. Though already well-known in France as a master of pastels and painting, Labille-Guiard still benefitted from this marriage, which would last until her death in 1803.
Labille-Guiard was admitted to the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1769 by François-Elie Vincent
when she was barely twenty years old. Her admission piece, a small miniature, has since disappeared, and no descriptions or records of its existence have survived to this day. Through the Académie de Saint-Luc, which was notable for its numerous female members—it had 130 women by 1777—Labille-Guiard was able to practice art professionally.
She first exhibited her art in 1774 at the Académie de Saint-Luc's Salon. After that exhibition, Labille-Guiard's works would often be compared against those of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, one of Labille-Guiard's fellow female contemporaries and a fellow member of the Académie de Saint-Luc. However, critics often avoided the issue of their gender when discussing their works.
This show was so successful that the Royal Academy took offense, and with the backing of the monarchy, issued an edict
in March 1776 abolishing "guilds, brotherhoods, and communities of arts and crafts." The Académie de Saint-Luc would close its doors in 1777.
Due to the Académie de Saint-Luc's closure, Labille-Guiard began to learn oil painting from her childhood friend François-André Vincent so she could apply to the Royal Academy, which required her to present at least one oil painting for admission.
After the closure of the Académie de Saint-Luc, Pahin de la Blanchisserie established the permanent fair, Salon de la Correspondance, in 1779. For a small fee, artists outside the Royal Academy could exhibit their works. One year after its opening in 1781, Labille-Guiard chose to display some of her pastels, including her self-portrait in pastel and oil portraits of her husband and Guillame Voiriot, a teacher at the Royal Academy, which were well-received by critics.
Labille-Guiard's talent as an oil painter and pastellist was quickly noticed, and with the help of François-André Vincent, who guided several of his friends in the Royal Academy to her for portraits, including Joseph-Marie Vien
, the professor Bachelier
, his friend Suvée
, and the aforementioned Voiriot, she would become nationally recognizable, and the generally favorable feedback hastened her acceptance to the Royal Academy.
The paintings of Labille-Guiard and Vigée-Le Brun were often compared by critics, with Vigée-Le Brun usually receiving more favorable reviews. Labille-Guiard's early masterpiece Self-portrait with two pupils, exhibited at the Paris Salon
in 1785, was influenced by Vigée-Le Brun's style. The artwork of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard is now considered of equal or greater value.
Patronage by the aunt of Louis XVI of France
, the princess Marie Adélaïde
, gained Labille-Guiard a government pension
of 1,000 livres
, and commissions to paint Adélaïde, her sister Victoire-Louise, and Élisabeth
, the king's sister. The portrait of Adélaïde, exhibited in 1787, was Labille-Guiard's largest and most ambitious work to that date. In 1788 she was commissioned by the king's brother, the Count of Provence (later Louis XVIII of France
), to paint him at the centre of a large historical work, Réception d'un chevalier de Saint-Lazare par Monsieur, Grand maître de l'ordre.
These royal connections made Labille-Guiard politically suspect after the French Revolution
of 1789. In 1793 she was ordered to destroy some of her royalist works, including the unfinished commission for the Count of Provence.
She was far from conservative, however. In the early 1790s she campaigned for the Academy to be opened up to the general admission of women. At the Salon of 1791 she exhibited portraits of members of the National Assembly
, including Maximilien Robespierre
and Armand, duc d'Aiguillon
.
In 1793 she and her first husband, from whom she separated in 1777, were divorced. In 1795 she obtained artist's lodging
at the Louvre
and a new pension of 2,000 livres. She continued to exhibit portraits at the Salon until 1800. On 8 June 1799, she married her teacher, François-André Vincent, after which she signed some of her paintings "Madame Vincent". She died on 24 April 1803.
The Getty Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum
, Harvard University Art Museums
, the Honolulu Academy of Arts
, Kimbell Art Museum
(Fort Worth, Texas), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
, the Louvre
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, the National Gallery of Art
(Washington D.C.), the National Museum in Warsaw
, the National Museum of Women in the Arts
(Washington D.C.)], the Speed Art Museum
(Kentucky) and Versailles
are among the public collections holding works by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
miniaturist and portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
.
Family
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the youngest of eight children, to a bourgeois family. Her father, the haberdasher
Haberdasher
A haberdasher is a person who sells small articles for sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zips, and other notions. In American English, haberdasher is another term for a men's outfitter. A haberdasher's shop or the items sold therein are called haberdashery.-Origin and use:The word appears in...
Claude-Edme Labille, owned a shop named 'A La Toilette' situated in the Rue neuve des Petits Champs in the parish of Saint-Eustache
Saint-Eustache
Saint-Eustache may refer to:* Eustace of Luxeuil, monk* Saint Eustace , a legendary Christian martyr who allegedly lived in the 2nd century AD* Saint-Eustache, Quebec, a city in western Quebec, Canada...
. (Jeanne Bécu, the future Madame du Barry
Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...
, worked on the same street, and would eventually become good friends with Labille-Guiard.)
Her older sister, Félicité, whose date of birth is unknown, married to the miniaturist Jean Antoine Gros, a notable painting collector, in 1764 in the Saint-Eustache parish of Paris. It is unknown whether Adélaïde kept in touch with Jean Antoine Gros, his second wife, the pastel artist Pierrette Madeleine Cecile Durant, or his son, the famous Napoleonic painter Antoine Jean Gros, following her sister's death in 1768.
Studies
Though Labille-Guiard became a master at miniatures, pastelPastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
s, and oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
s, we know little about her training. Much of this lack of information is due to the practices of the time, which dictated that masters (who were predominantly male) should not take on young female pupils, as society perceived that young females would not be able to follow instruction alongside young men. However, some masters still took on young female pupils as a form of revenge against the master's other pupils.
During adolescence, Labille-Guiard studied miniature painting
Portrait miniature
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolour, or enamel.Portrait miniatures began to flourish in 16th century Europe and the art was practiced during the 17th century and 18th century...
with the oil painter
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
François-Elie Vincent
François-Elie Vincent
François-Elie Vincent was a Swiss painter of portrait miniatures.He was born in Geneva. He moved to Paris where he painted and taught...
, a family friend. Due to Vincent's connections, her early works were exhibited at the Académie de Saint-Luc
Académie de Saint-Luc
The Académie de Saint-Luc was a painters' guild set up in Paris in 1391 by the Provost of Paris, along the lines of the Guilds of Saint Luke in the rest of Europe...
. During this apprenticeship, she would meet her future husband, Vincent's son François-André Vincent
François-André Vincent
François-André Vincent was a French neoclassical painter.He was the son of the miniaturist François-Elie Vincent and studied under Joseph-Marie Vien. He travelled to Rome, where he won the Prix de Rome in 1768...
.
After marrying Louis-Nicolas Guiard in 1769, she apprenticed with the pastel master Quentin de la Tour until Tour's marriage in 1774. After the apprenticeship, she exhibited one of her pastels of a magistrate at the Académie de Saint-Luc. She would continue displaying her works at the Académie de Saint-Luc until it closed in 1776. After that, she would display her works at the Salon de la Correspondance.
Marriages
At the age of twenty, Labille-Guiard married Nicolas Guiard, a clerk with the Receiver General of the Clergy of France. Though of little help in Labille-Guiard's painting career, their marriage contract, signed 25 August 1769, stated that Labille-Guiard was a professional painter at the Académie de Saint-LucAcadémie de Saint-Luc
The Académie de Saint-Luc was a painters' guild set up in Paris in 1391 by the Provost of Paris, along the lines of the Guilds of Saint Luke in the rest of Europe...
.
The couple separated in 1777, and by 27 July 1779, were officially separated. Both kept the property they had had prior to entering marriage, since separation of property already existed under the Old Regime. After Revolutionary legislation permitted, they divorced in 1793, but Labille-Guiard retained the name Guiard, and remains known to the art world as Labille-Guiard. Thereafter, she earned a living by teaching painting.
On 8 June 1799, Labille-Guiard remarried to François-André Vincent
François-André Vincent
François-André Vincent was a French neoclassical painter.He was the son of the miniaturist François-Elie Vincent and studied under Joseph-Marie Vien. He travelled to Rome, where he won the Prix de Rome in 1768...
, winner of the Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
in 1768 and a member of the Royal Academy. Though already well-known in France as a master of pastels and painting, Labille-Guiard still benefitted from this marriage, which would last until her death in 1803.
The Académie de Saint-Luc and the Salons up to 1782
François-Elie Vincent
François-Elie Vincent was a Swiss painter of portrait miniatures.He was born in Geneva. He moved to Paris where he painted and taught...
when she was barely twenty years old. Her admission piece, a small miniature, has since disappeared, and no descriptions or records of its existence have survived to this day. Through the Académie de Saint-Luc, which was notable for its numerous female members—it had 130 women by 1777—Labille-Guiard was able to practice art professionally.
She first exhibited her art in 1774 at the Académie de Saint-Luc's Salon. After that exhibition, Labille-Guiard's works would often be compared against those of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, one of Labille-Guiard's fellow female contemporaries and a fellow member of the Académie de Saint-Luc. However, critics often avoided the issue of their gender when discussing their works.
This show was so successful that the Royal Academy took offense, and with the backing of the monarchy, issued an edict
Edict
An edict is an announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism. The Pope and various micronational leaders are currently the only persons who still issue edicts.-Notable edicts:...
in March 1776 abolishing "guilds, brotherhoods, and communities of arts and crafts." The Académie de Saint-Luc would close its doors in 1777.
Due to the Académie de Saint-Luc's closure, Labille-Guiard began to learn oil painting from her childhood friend François-André Vincent so she could apply to the Royal Academy, which required her to present at least one oil painting for admission.
After the closure of the Académie de Saint-Luc, Pahin de la Blanchisserie established the permanent fair, Salon de la Correspondance, in 1779. For a small fee, artists outside the Royal Academy could exhibit their works. One year after its opening in 1781, Labille-Guiard chose to display some of her pastels, including her self-portrait in pastel and oil portraits of her husband and Guillame Voiriot, a teacher at the Royal Academy, which were well-received by critics.
Labille-Guiard's talent as an oil painter and pastellist was quickly noticed, and with the help of François-André Vincent, who guided several of his friends in the Royal Academy to her for portraits, including Joseph-Marie Vien
Joseph-Marie Vien
Joseph-Marie Vien , French painter, was born at Montpellier. He was the last holder of the post of Premier peintre du Roi, serving from 1789 to 1791....
, the professor Bachelier
Jean-Jacques Bachelier
Jean-Jacques Bachelier was a French painter and director of the porcelain factory at Sèvres.Admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1752, he founded an art school using his own means in Paris in 1765 for the artisans in the historic collège d'Autun , which survived until the...
, his friend Suvée
Joseph-Benoît Suvée
Joseph-Benoît Suvée was a Flemish painter strongly influenced by French neo-classicism.He was born in Bruges. Initially a pupil of Matthias de Visch, he came to France aged 19 and became a pupil of Jean-Jacques Bachelier. In 1771, he won the Prix de Rome...
, and the aforementioned Voiriot, she would become nationally recognizable, and the generally favorable feedback hastened her acceptance to the Royal Academy.
Acceptance into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture
On 31 May 1783, Labille-Guiard was accepted as a member of the French Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Three other women, including Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun, were admitted as members on the same day, with some consternation on the part of some of the male members. The acceptance of the women together created a comparison among their works rather than to the works of the established members, easing the concerns of the old members.The paintings of Labille-Guiard and Vigée-Le Brun were often compared by critics, with Vigée-Le Brun usually receiving more favorable reviews. Labille-Guiard's early masterpiece Self-portrait with two pupils, exhibited at the Paris Salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
in 1785, was influenced by Vigée-Le Brun's style. The artwork of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard is now considered of equal or greater value.
Patronage by the aunt of Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
, the princess Marie Adélaïde
Marie Adélaïde, Madame Quatrième
Marie Adélaïde de France, Daughter of France , was the fourth daughter and sixth child of King Louis XV of France and his Queen consort, Maria Leszczyńska. As the daughter of the king, she was a Fille de France...
, gained Labille-Guiard a government pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
of 1,000 livres
Livre tournois
The livre tournois |pound]]) was:#one of numerous currencies used in France in the Middle Ages; and#a unit of account used in France in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.-Circulating currency:...
, and commissions to paint Adélaïde, her sister Victoire-Louise, and Élisabeth
Élisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène of France
|align=left|Élisabeth of France , known as Madame Élisabeth, was a French princess and the youngest sister of King Louis XVI...
, the king's sister. The portrait of Adélaïde, exhibited in 1787, was Labille-Guiard's largest and most ambitious work to that date. In 1788 she was commissioned by the king's brother, the Count of Provence (later Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
), to paint him at the centre of a large historical work, Réception d'un chevalier de Saint-Lazare par Monsieur, Grand maître de l'ordre.
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
of 1789. In 1793 she was ordered to destroy some of her royalist works, including the unfinished commission for the Count of Provence.
She was far from conservative, however. In the early 1790s she campaigned for the Academy to be opened up to the general admission of women. At the Salon of 1791 she exhibited portraits of members of the National Assembly
National Assembly (French Revolution)
During the French Revolution, the National Assembly , which existed from June 17 to July 9, 1789, was a transitional body between the Estates-General and the National Constituent Assembly.-Background:...
, including Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
and Armand, duc d'Aiguillon
Armand, duc d'Aiguillon
Armand II de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, duke of Aiguillon succeeded his father Emmanuel-Armand de Richelieu, duc d'Aiguillon....
.
In 1793 she and her first husband, from whom she separated in 1777, were divorced. In 1795 she obtained artist's lodging
Lodging
Lodging is a type of residential accommodation. People who travel and stay away from home for more than a day need lodging for sleep, rest, safety, shelter from cold temperatures or rain, storage of luggage and access to common household functions.Lodgings may be self catering in which case no...
at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
and a new pension of 2,000 livres. She continued to exhibit portraits at the Salon until 1800. On 8 June 1799, she married her teacher, François-André Vincent, after which she signed some of her paintings "Madame Vincent". She died on 24 April 1803.
The Getty Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix art museum
The Phoenix Art Museum is the Southwest United States' largest art museum for visual art. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western...
, Harvard University Art Museums
Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard Art Museums, part of Harvard University, comprise three museums and four research centers .The Harvard Art Museums...
, the Honolulu Academy of Arts
Honolulu Academy of Arts
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is an art museum in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii. Since its founding in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke and opening April 8, 1927, its collections have grown to over 40,000 works of art.-Description:...
, Kimbell Art Museum
Kimbell Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, hosts a small but excellent art collection as well as traveling art exhibitions, educational programs and an extensive research library. Its initial artwork came from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell, who also provided funds for a new...
(Fort Worth, Texas), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
(Washington D.C.), the National Museum in Warsaw
National Museum in Warsaw
The National Museum in Warsaw , Poland, is a national institution of culture, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in Warsaw. It comprise a rich collection of ancient art , counting about 11.000 pieces, an extensive gallery of Polish painting since the 16th century and a collection...
, the National Museum of Women in the Arts
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts , located in Washington, D.C. is the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay...
(Washington D.C.)], the Speed Art Museum
Speed Art Museum
The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, now colloquially referred to as the Speed by locals, is the oldest, largest, and foremost museum of art in Kentucky...
(Kentucky) and Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
are among the public collections holding works by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard.