Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) and Marie Marguerite Carraux de Rosemond (1765–1788)

Labille-Guiard’s self-portrait with her students Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond is one of the most remarkable images of women’s art education in early modern Europe. In 1783 when Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun were admitted to the French Royal Academy, the number of women artists eligible for membership was limited to four. This canvas, shown with great success at the Salon of 1785, has been interpreted as a means of advocating their cause. As in most eighteenth-century artists’ self-portraits, Labille-Guiard depicted herself in impractically elegant clothing. Primarily a portraitist, she had especially faithful patrons in Louis XV’s daughters, known as Mesdames de France.