Essay on Adelaide Labille-Guiard, Self-portrait with Two Pupils
In 1785, celebrated artist Adelaide Labille-Guiard painted what would become one of her most famous works, the oil on canvas Self-Portrait with Two Pupils , Mademoiselle Marie Gabrielle Capet and Mademoiselle. The painting is noteworthy in a variety of ways, not the least of which is the gender of the artist (she was one of the few women invited to the French Academie Royale) and her subjects within the work, but also the unusual compositional choices.
The size of the painting is fairly striking in comparison to an adult viewer. The painting is over two meters tall, and about 1.5 meters in width, far larger than most viewers and also larger than most paintings of the era that depicted women. One of the effects of the choice of canvas size is that the women in the picture appear larger than they would in real life. There is a power psychology to this, in that it puts the observer in an inferior position to the work being observed, much in the same way a tall man naturally intimidates those shorter than he.
Labille-Guiard was and is well-known for the incredible detail of her brushwork. It was often said by her peers in the art world that her paintings captured the likenesses of her subjects almost perfectly. In this particular painting, the viewer can see every wrinkle in Labille-Guiard’s and her two students’ dresses; the grain of the wood floor beneath them is specific and subtly colored, and each shadow and reflection of the lighting is precise. Other impressive details include the artist’s name, as if it were a brand, visible on the wood rear of the canvas; the grain in the wood of the lid of the chest to the left of Labille-Guiard; the velvet/velour texture and small brass beads on the…
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Tags: artist, canvas, painting, self portrait, social commentary, students
