Adelaide Labille-Guiard

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (11 April 1749 – 24 April 1803), also known as Adélaïde Labille-Guiard des Vertus, was a French miniaturist and portrait painter. She was an advocate for women to receive the same opportunities as men to become great painters. Labille-Guiard was admitted to the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1767 when she was twenty years old. Her admission piece has since disappeared and sadly no records of its existence survive today. The Académie de Saint-Luc provided Labille-Guiard with a space to practice art professionally. In 1774, she exhibited her work at its Salon. This show was so successful that the Royal Academy took offence, and with the backing of the monarchy, issued an edict in March 1776 abolishing “guilds, brotherhoods, and communities of arts and crafts”, forcing the Academie de Saint-Luc to close its doors in 1777. However, this did not stop Labille-Guiard's ambitions as an artist. Once the Académie de Saint-Luc closed its doors, Labille-Guiard began to learn oil painting so she could apply to the Royal Academy which required her to present at least one oil painting for admission. Labille-Guiard chose to display some of her work at the Salon de la Correspondance in 1779. This included her self-portrait in pastel and oil portraits which were well received by critics. Labille-Guiard’s talent as an oil painter and pastellist was quickly noticed and she received national recognition ultimately leading to her acceptance into the Royal Academy. On May 31, 1783, Labille-Guiard was accepted as a member of the French Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Three other women were admitted as members on the same day. Through pure artistic ability and talent, Labille-Guiard became a painter for the Royal family. Her royal patrons included the aunt of Louis XVI of France, Princess Marie Adélaïde and her sister Victoria Louise, and the King’s sister Elizabeth and earned her a government pension of 1,000 livres. The portrait of Adélaïde completed in 1787 was one of Labille-Guiard’s largest and most ambitious work to that date. She was later commissioned in 1788 by the King’s brother, the Count of Provence (later Louis XVII of France). She was instructed 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. In 1795 she obtained artist's lodging at the Louvre and a new pension of 2,000 livres. She was the first woman artist to be permitted to set up a studio for herself and her students at the Louvre.