DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0049
12
VIGEE-LEBRUN
companion, as Elisabeth Vigee appeared: “ Ah ! there is nothing to say
about this one.”
In recalling the incident sixty years afterwards, “ This one ” said :
“ The remark, which many people besides myself heard, gave me so keen
a satisfaction that I remember it still with a certain pleasure.”
It was about this time that Elisabeth had her first conflict with the
law. The guild or corporation system was so strongly established, among
artists as well as artisans and tradesmen, that it was illegal to paint
portraits for money unless one was either a member or apprenticed to
a member of some recognised Academy of Art. Elisabeth had never
taken this regulation seriously into account, and was unpleasantly aston-
ished one day by the appearance of a bailiff charged to seize the contents
of her studio. The way out of this difficulty which naturally presented
itself to her was to apply for admission to the Academy of Saint Luke,
in which her father had been a teacher, and of which several of her friends
were members. After showing some of her pictures at the rooms in the
Rue Saint Merri, where this Academy had its exhibitions, she was admitted,
as a “ Master-painter,” on October 25, 1774.
It is a curious fact that of the pictures attributed to her in the
catalogue of the Academy of Saint Luke not one appears in her own list
of her works. Eight were specified particularly, including portraits of
M. Dumesnil, rector of the Academy (this served as her diploma picture),
M. Fournier, counsellor of the same Academy, and several other persons,
men or women, and also imaginative representations of women repre-
senting “ Painting,” “ Poetry,” and “ Music.” Most of these works were
done in oil, but there was an oval picture in pastel, of an unnamed lady.
It is worth noting that at this exhibition Elisabeth Vigee for the first
time found herself in rivalry with the artist (six years her senior) who was
destined to be her chief competitor—Madame Adelaide Labille-Guiard. It
was the first public exhibition of works by either of these gifted young
people. The work of Elisabeth’s friend and fellow-student, Rosalie
Bocquet, was also represented on this occasion.
Mademoiselle Vigee’s pictures, thus shown to the public, had a con-
siderable success with the amateurs of budding talent, and commissions
came in more rapidly, so that the invocation of the Law of Corporations
against her had really hastened her arrival as a successful portrait-painter.
In her twenty-first year, according to her own list, she painted no less than
thirty-three original portraits. Some of these were pastels, and some,
VIGEE-LEBRUN
companion, as Elisabeth Vigee appeared: “ Ah ! there is nothing to say
about this one.”
In recalling the incident sixty years afterwards, “ This one ” said :
“ The remark, which many people besides myself heard, gave me so keen
a satisfaction that I remember it still with a certain pleasure.”
It was about this time that Elisabeth had her first conflict with the
law. The guild or corporation system was so strongly established, among
artists as well as artisans and tradesmen, that it was illegal to paint
portraits for money unless one was either a member or apprenticed to
a member of some recognised Academy of Art. Elisabeth had never
taken this regulation seriously into account, and was unpleasantly aston-
ished one day by the appearance of a bailiff charged to seize the contents
of her studio. The way out of this difficulty which naturally presented
itself to her was to apply for admission to the Academy of Saint Luke,
in which her father had been a teacher, and of which several of her friends
were members. After showing some of her pictures at the rooms in the
Rue Saint Merri, where this Academy had its exhibitions, she was admitted,
as a “ Master-painter,” on October 25, 1774.
It is a curious fact that of the pictures attributed to her in the
catalogue of the Academy of Saint Luke not one appears in her own list
of her works. Eight were specified particularly, including portraits of
M. Dumesnil, rector of the Academy (this served as her diploma picture),
M. Fournier, counsellor of the same Academy, and several other persons,
men or women, and also imaginative representations of women repre-
senting “ Painting,” “ Poetry,” and “ Music.” Most of these works were
done in oil, but there was an oval picture in pastel, of an unnamed lady.
It is worth noting that at this exhibition Elisabeth Vigee for the first
time found herself in rivalry with the artist (six years her senior) who was
destined to be her chief competitor—Madame Adelaide Labille-Guiard. It
was the first public exhibition of works by either of these gifted young
people. The work of Elisabeth’s friend and fellow-student, Rosalie
Bocquet, was also represented on this occasion.
Mademoiselle Vigee’s pictures, thus shown to the public, had a con-
siderable success with the amateurs of budding talent, and commissions
came in more rapidly, so that the invocation of the Law of Corporations
against her had really hastened her arrival as a successful portrait-painter.
In her twenty-first year, according to her own list, she painted no less than
thirty-three original portraits. Some of these were pastels, and some,