ADELAÏDE LABILLE-GUIARD (Paris, 1749-1803) SELF-PORTRAIT Pastel Signed and dated lower left "Labille F Guiard 1782". Original frame Selfportrait, pastel, signed and dated, original frame 62 x 51 CM - 24,4 x 20 IN. Dimensions with frame : 77 x 67 CM - 30,3 x 26,3 IN. If you wish to bid on this lot, please contact Landry Orizet, auctioneer: +33 1 53 30 30 46 - [email protected] If you wish to bid on this lot, please contact Landry Orizet, auctioneer, directly: +33 1 53 30 30 46 - [email protected] PROVENANCE Watel-Dehaynin Collection; in the same family by descent. EXHIBITION Salon de La Correspondance, 1782. BIBLIOGRAPHY Anne Marie Passez, Adélaide Labille-Guiard 1749-1803, Paris, 1973, p. 126, no. 46; Laura Auricchio, Adelaide Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum 2009, p. 24 (fig.16, repr.). Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellist before 1800, edition on line, references J.44.101, J.44.102, J.44.103 ; Our pastel will be included by Madame Sophie Join-Lambert in the catalogue raisonné on the artist, which she is preparing under no. D36. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was a pioneer. While the careers of women artists in the second half of the eighteenth century remained in the shadows, she was one of the few to gain official recognition under the Ancien Régime, on a par with her 'rival' Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. After studying with François-Élie Vincent père, she learned the pastel technique with Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. She was admitted to the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1769, and exhibited successfully at its Salon in 1774, followed by our Self-Portrait at the Salon de la Correspondance in 1782, before being admitted a year later to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1783. Her prestigious clientele included the Parisian bourgeoisie and members of the royal family at Versailles, in particular Mesdames, daughters of Louis XV and aunts of Louis XVI. In 1800, she married for the second time the painter François André Vincent, whom she had known since her adolescence. Here she is dressed in an elegant beige satin gown, asserting her status by wearing the attributes of her profession: a palette and brushes. The chosen medium, pastel, lends a soft modelling and a powdery luminosity to the whole. She updated Rubens's famous Portrait of Suzanne Lunden, known as the Straw Hat (London, National Gallery, Fig. 1), which Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun had seen in Antwerp at the home of the collector Jean-Michel-Joseph van Havre [1]. From then on, Vigée-Lebrun used it repeatedly, in the Portrait of the Duchess of Polignac (1782, Château de Versailles), in that of the Du Barry (private collection) in 1782, and again in her Self-Portrait in the Open Air (collection of Baroness Edmond de Rothschild), another version of which is in the National Gallery in London (Fig. 2), at the same date as our pastel. Our painting anticipates Adélaïde Labille-Guiard's masterpiece, the Self-Portrait with Two Pupils of 1785 (New York, Metropolitan Museum, Fig. 3). Both works promote the emancipation of women through art. She defended the artistic education of women and campaigned with others for their rights within the Académie. In 1790, they proposed two motions to abolish the quota limiting the admission of women and to allow them access to the same courses as men, including that of professor, but these were rejected. They were finally recognised by their male colleagues in the late eighteenth century and the first third of the nineteenth century, a period recently described by Séverine Sofio in her essay "Peintre femmes la parenthèse enchantée" (2015) and highlighted by several recent exhibitions and publications such as "Peintre Femmes 1780-1830 Naissance d'un combat", at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, in 2021, or "Les sœurs Lemoine" and "Adèle de Romance, peintre libre", at the Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard in Grasse in 2023 and 2025. [1] Despite the title by which Rubens' painting is known, his sister-in-law is wearing a black felt hat. Reynolds had seen it a few years before Vigée-Lebrun and had also taken up the motif of the hat casting a shadow over the face, spreading this model among English painters. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was a pioneer. While the careers of female artists in the second half of the 18th CENTURY remained in the shadows, she was one of the few to have gained official recognition under the Ancien Régime, alongside her 'rival'Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. After studying with François-Élie Vincent père, she learned the technique of pastel painting with Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. She was accepted into the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1769, exhibited successfully at its Salon in 1774, then our Self-Portrait at the Salon de la Correspondance in 1782, before being admitted a year later to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1783. Her prestigious clientele included the Parisian bourgeoisie and members of the royal family at Versailles, notably Mesdames, daughters of Louis XV and aunts of Louis XVI. She married the painter François André Vincent in 1800, whom she had known since her adolescence. Here she is depicted wearing an elegant beige satin dress, asserting her status by carrying the attributes of her profession: a palette and brushes. The chosen medium, pastel, gives the whole work a softness of modelling and a powdery luminosity. She updates Rubens' famous Portrait of Suzanne Lunden, known as The Straw Hat (London, National Gallery, Fig. 1), which Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun had seen in Antwerp at the home of collector Jean-Michel-Joseph van Havre [1]. From then on, she used it repeatedly, in the Portrait of the Duchess of Polignac (1782, Palace of Versailles), in that of Du Barry (private collection) in 1782, and was again inspired by it in her Self-Portrait, en plein air (collection of Baroness Edmond de Rothschild), another version of which is in the National Gallery in London (Fig. 2), dated the same year as our pastel. Our painting anticipates Adélaïde Labille-Guiard's masterpiece, Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, 1785 (New York, Metropolitan Museum, Fig. 3). Both works promote the emancipation of women through art. She championed women's artistic education and campaigned with others for their rights within the Academy. In 1790, they proposed two motions aimed at abolishing the quota limiting the admission of women and allowing them access to the same courses as men, including teaching, but these were rejected. They were finally recognised by their male colleagues at the end of the 18TH CENTURY and in the first third of the 19TH CENTURY, a period recently described by Séverine Sofio in her essay "Peintre femmes la parenthèse enchantée '(2015) and highlighted in several recent exhibitions and publications such as 'Peintre Femmes 1780-1830 Naissance d'un combat' (Women Painters 1780-1830 : The Birth of a Struggle) at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris in 2021, and 'Les sœurs Lemoine' (The Lemoine Sisters) and 'Adèle de Romance, peintre libre' (Adèle de Romance, Free Painter) at the Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard in Grasse in 2023 and 2025. [1] Despite the title under which Rubens' painting is known, his sister-in-law is wearing a black felt hat. Reynolds had seen it a few years before Vigée-Lebrun and had also taken up the motif of the hat casting a shadow over the face, spreading this model among English painters.