DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0106
42
VIGEE-LEBRUN
Vigee, wife of the sire Lebrun, as a member, upon the reputation of her
talents, and invites Madame Lebrun to send some of her works to the
next meeting.’' Madame Labille-Guiard was, however, also admitted, the
taint of commerce not being attached to her. As the Academy in its
minutes refers to the terms of the new statutes which the King had author-
ised M. d’Angiviller to draw up, including the limitation to four women
members in future, some jugglery must have been necessary to cover the
fact that the two new members brought the number up to five—unless,
indeed, one of the three ladies already mentioned as members of the
Academy had died in the interval. Apparently it was arranged that while
Madame Labille-Guiard was elected in the ordinary way, her rival should
be regarded as being thrust in by royal “ dispensation.”
In any case she brought more distinction in the end to the Academy
than she received from it. At the moment, as her response to the
demand for a diploma picture, she sent in the allegorical work “ La Paix
ramenant L’Abondance,” which hangs to-day in Gallery XVI of the
Louvre.
The enemies of women were furious at the admission of the two
most distinguished women-painters of the day to the Academy, and the
versifiers were speedily employed in writing unpleasant lines about them.
Madame Labille-Guiard fared the worse, her character as well as her art
being attacked, whereas in the case of Madame Lebrun it was only her
alleged pride that was assailed, in addition to her talents. She was told
not to be stuck up because she had a fine carriage-and-horses, and that her
pride was as impertinent as the colouring in her pictures was bad. The
high praises she received made up for any such pin-pricks, and her fame,
till then chiefly confined to the Court, now spread throughout the public
generally.
Their arrival together in the Academy, their common experience of
hostile criticism did not serve to make the two new Academiciennes friendly
to one another. It is significant that Madame Lebrun never refers to
her rival by name, though she probably has her in mind when, on one
occasion, she speaks of women artists who are jealous of her because they
are more ugly than herself !
In that same year she was to have another snub, followed by another
triumph, in connection with a picture which soon became famous all over
Europe. At the Salon which opened shortly after her admission to the
Academy she was represented by quite a number of pictures, among them
VIGEE-LEBRUN
Vigee, wife of the sire Lebrun, as a member, upon the reputation of her
talents, and invites Madame Lebrun to send some of her works to the
next meeting.’' Madame Labille-Guiard was, however, also admitted, the
taint of commerce not being attached to her. As the Academy in its
minutes refers to the terms of the new statutes which the King had author-
ised M. d’Angiviller to draw up, including the limitation to four women
members in future, some jugglery must have been necessary to cover the
fact that the two new members brought the number up to five—unless,
indeed, one of the three ladies already mentioned as members of the
Academy had died in the interval. Apparently it was arranged that while
Madame Labille-Guiard was elected in the ordinary way, her rival should
be regarded as being thrust in by royal “ dispensation.”
In any case she brought more distinction in the end to the Academy
than she received from it. At the moment, as her response to the
demand for a diploma picture, she sent in the allegorical work “ La Paix
ramenant L’Abondance,” which hangs to-day in Gallery XVI of the
Louvre.
The enemies of women were furious at the admission of the two
most distinguished women-painters of the day to the Academy, and the
versifiers were speedily employed in writing unpleasant lines about them.
Madame Labille-Guiard fared the worse, her character as well as her art
being attacked, whereas in the case of Madame Lebrun it was only her
alleged pride that was assailed, in addition to her talents. She was told
not to be stuck up because she had a fine carriage-and-horses, and that her
pride was as impertinent as the colouring in her pictures was bad. The
high praises she received made up for any such pin-pricks, and her fame,
till then chiefly confined to the Court, now spread throughout the public
generally.
Their arrival together in the Academy, their common experience of
hostile criticism did not serve to make the two new Academiciennes friendly
to one another. It is significant that Madame Lebrun never refers to
her rival by name, though she probably has her in mind when, on one
occasion, she speaks of women artists who are jealous of her because they
are more ugly than herself !
In that same year she was to have another snub, followed by another
triumph, in connection with a picture which soon became famous all over
Europe. At the Salon which opened shortly after her admission to the
Academy she was represented by quite a number of pictures, among them