LABILLE-GUIARD, Adélaide
(b. 1749, Paris, d. 1803, Paris)

Self-Portrait with Two Pupils

1785
Oil on canvas, 211 x 151 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The artist portrayed herself before the easel with her two pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond (died 1788).

In 1783, when Labille-Guiard and Vigée-Lebrun were admitted to the French Académie Royale, the number of women artists eligible for membership was limited to four, and this canvas has been interpreted as a propaganda piece, arguing for the place of women in the academy.