women artists and the french - faculty and staff · 2006-03-21 · status of women in 18 th century...
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Women Artists and the French Revolution
Lena Bondar Blair Garrison
Status of Women in 18 th Century France
• Women sensual and natural • Men rational and cultural • Women limited to housekeeping • Women subordinate to men • Conflicting depictions of women
– Flattering and compromising
– Sympathetic and reproachful
Economic Role • Thought to have no political or
economic role – Widows made jobs available to men and practiced trade of former husbands
– Women supported husbands therefore supporting French economy
– Particular industries: spinning, weaving, embroidering of household linens, ribbon making, baking, and grain brokers
Political Role • Before Revolution: indirect role through
men – Marquise de Pompadour – Mme. De Tencin
• October 56, 1789: March on Versailles • Social class influenced nature of demands • Wanted equal rights
– Right to divorce – Property for widows – Educational opportunities – Right to employment – Exclusion of men from female professions (dressmaking)
Olympe De Gouges • Self educated daughter of a butcher • Wrote the Declaration of the Rights of
Woman (to parallel the Declaration of the Rights of Man) – “Having become free, [man] has become unjust toward his companion…what advantages have you [women] gathered in the Revolution? A scorn more marked, a disdain more conspicuous”
• Was accused of being a counterrevolutionary and an “unnatural woman” and consequently guillotined in 1793
Charlotte Corday
• Supporter of monarchy • Favored Girondins • Stabbed Jean Paul Marat July 13, 1793 • Sentenced to death July 17, 1793 • Asked father for forgiveness for “having
disposed of my existence without your permission”
• Inspiration to French people who shared belief that Revolution was corrupted by Reign of Terror
Pop Quiz!
• What was most people’s perception of women at the time of the French Revolution?
• How did women support the economy? • What kind of rights were women fighting for during the French
Revolution? • What did Olympe de Gouges write?
• Why was Charlotte Corday sentenced to death?
Marianne Loir
• (17151769) • Ten portraits identified
– Painted predominantly wealthy women
• Family of Parisian silversmiths – Her brother, Alexis Loir, was also an artist (pastellist/sculptor)
• Trained by French painter JeanFrançois de Troy
• May have spent time in Rome • Elected to the Academy of Marseilles
(1762)
Adelaide LabilleGuiard • (17491803) • Contemporary and rumored
“rival” of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun • Initially a miniaturist • Later studied pastel and oil
painting • She taught in order to make
additional money – Accepted into the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1783
– Reviewers of the Salon de la Correspondance favored Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, much to Adelaide’s frustration
• Her works featured portraits of royalty and aristocrats – E.g. Mme. Adelaide, daughter of Louis XV
– Sitters always dressed according to highfashion
• She was, however, a supporter of the Revolution – Painted portraits of leaders such as Roubspeirre
• Active in attempts to reform the Academy – Her proposal that acceptance of women should not be subject to quota met with criticism and resistance (1790)
Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun
• (17551842) • Daughter of a Portraitist, Loise Vigée
– Taught to draw by her father • Specialized in portraiture, predominantly
of European royalty and aristocrats – She was close to Queen Marie Antoinette
– Her selfportraits are modeled after famous works
– She portrayed herself in feminine roles as an unthreatening, loving mother
• Accepted to the Royal Academy of Painting and sculpture in 1783 – (on the same day as Adelaide LabilleGuiard)
– Admitted by direct command of King Louis XVI with the honorable title: painter of historical allegory
• Despite her royalist affiliation, her work received great acclaim at exhibitions
• 255 artists, scientist, and writers successfully petitioned the new French authorities in favor of Elisabeth’s return to France
Pop Quiz!
• Whose painting is this à • Who was the “rival” of Elisabeth Vigée Le
Brun? • Which artist portrayed herself in feminine
roles as an unthreatening, loving mother? • Who is this a self portrait of à • Which artist was initially a miniaturist
who later focused on oil and pastel paintings?