Further, they long affected what may be called medium processes: pastel, water-colour, miniature, all kinds of work offering opportunity of finish and éclat. They showed a partiality for oil painting after the manner of the smaller Dutch masters, who had no more faithful imitators in all France. Mme. Vien, Mme. de Valsaureaux, née Parrocel, and particularly Mme. Vallayer Coster—"femme qui fut un habile homme," according to the verses written in her honour—excelled in this style.
Some of the "Académistes"—to use the old French expression—won real celebrity, but few there were who achieved lasting glory. In the reign of Louis XIV, the woman artist whose reputation shone with the clearest lustre was Elisabeth Sophie Chéron, who excelled in all the arts—for she was a clever painter, a consummate musician, a poet of merit and femme d'esprit into the bargain. Following the general rule she belonged to one of the numerous artist families. Daughter of a painter (Louis Chéron), she was also sister of a painter. This latter, who was her junior, had talent, but not to the extent of the elder. Élisabeth Sophie Chéron was of Huguenot family, as was frequently the case among the Academicians, although, from what absurd prejudice I know not, the réformés were regarded as less artistic than other folk. But in 1668,—she was twenty then—terrified no doubt by the ever-increasing persecution of the Protestants—a persecution which was soon to result in the Edict of Nantes—she, like her sister, abjured her faith, whereas her brother, remaining true to the family faith, was forced to take refuge in London, where he died.[1]
[1] Several Académiciens of the reformed religion were excluded, or obliged to submit to the Catholic religion.
Sophie translated into French the Psalms of David, which her brother illustrated admirably, and she has left at least one important engraved work, but above all, she has left a number of portraits of well-known people of her time, portraits that the sitters made her copy four and even five times.
Among other "Académistes," interesting if not so well known, was that sister of the "Visitandine" order, Anne Marie Trésor, who decorated with religious subjects the church of the monastery of the "Dames de Ste. Marie de Chaillot." She was received by the Academy in 1676, and the choice of the Academy showed, as its accepted members were of such different views, that the body was after all somewhat broad in character. Another proof of this liberal spirit is to be found in the fact that the Academy received foreign artists within its body. There were three of them; the first was Mlle. Haverman, of Dutch origin, who was, however, excluded shortly after her election—she attempted to justify her election by sending in a painting which was not her own, but the work of her master, Van Huysum. The second foreign "Académiste" was specially illustrious and worthy of the honour conferred on her. She was Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian, a woman who was really original, and whose reputation has lived through the centuries, but about whom, in this chapter devoted to France, I must not speak at length. The last of the three was Mme. Terbouche, or, more exactly, Therbousch, who, although born in 1728 at Berlin, was numbered by our old museum catalogues in the ranks of the French School.
May 31st, 1783, was an exceptionally important date for the Academy, in respect of women artists. On that day were received Mme. Vigée Le Brun and Mme. Adélaïde Labille Guyard (or Guiard). One may say that at that very hour began officially the rivalry which constantly existed between the two women, both of real merit, throughout their careers—a rivalry which has been maintained in the preference shown for one or the other, after death, by their historians. Mme. Vigée Le Brun was the more celebrated of the two, and rightly so, for one might say that of all the women painters of her time she had a personality quite her own, quite feminine, rich in grace, ease, variety of attitude, gesture and composition, discreet and delicate affectedness, freshness and brightness. Mme. Vigée Le Brun was the daughter of a somewhat mediocre painter, and the wife of a well-known picture dealer, whom she married when quite young. She had lessons from Doyen, Greuze and Joseph Vernet, and her success was quickly achieved. Mlle. Adélaïde Labille des Vertus, the daughter of a mercer, was married to a certain Guyard, a neighbour. She did not live long with him, and had lessons from an old friend, the painter Vincent (the father), and afterwards from La Tour. While Mme. Le Brun, whose work was admired by Marie Antoinette, was supported by the Court, Mme. Guyard secretly made friends in the body of the Academy itself, painting the portraits of first one member and then another. On the day of the election, she seemed to be overcoming her rival, whom her friends succeeded in putting on one side because the rules of the Academy forbade the traffic in pictures. Mme. Le Brun was received only by order of the King. Her own autobiography, as well as the pamphlets of the time, depict for us the powerful rivalry which existed, and also the many calumnies with which the three women painters were attacked (there was a third candidate, Mme. Vallayer Coster), even in their private life, the persecution of offensive insinuations, and the existence of the accusation so often levelled against women painters, that their work is not their own. Posterity has reconciled the rivals on the walls of our galleries. If Mme. Vigée Le Brun certainly holds pride of place, Mme. Guyard, by her more solid talent, perhaps more characteristic, has an enviable position at her side.
By the side of these celebrated women there are a few others of whom the recollection is not quite so keen, but who were not without a touching grace, though they lived their life within the sphere of their masters' influence, illuminated by the renown of these masters and breathing their atmosphere. It would not be right to say that these women artists copied their masters, or slavishly imitated them, but they transposed their qualities, elevated them by feminising them. Of these, I may mention Mlle. Ledoux, who followed in the wake of Greuze; Mlle. Marguerite Gérard, who lived under the shadow of Fragonard; and that exquisite and sorrowful figure, Mlle. Constance Mayer, whose devotion for her master Prudhon found its supreme expression in her tragic end. Less brilliant, rather hidden in the twilight of history, these women yet exercise on our thoughts an influence more subtle and delicate, and more penetrating.
The approach of the great national crisis, and even the worst days of that period, at the same time glorious yet barbaric, did not extinguish the zeal of the women painters. It seems rather as though they shut themselves up in the study of their art so as to secure a refuge for their hopes and their dreams. In the first "Salons" of the century, one is surprised to find works by a comparatively large number of women painters. In 1800, of 180 exhibitors they number 25; eight years later, in the "Salon" of 1808, they are 46 out of 311. The difficulties set up by the Academy were overcome, the liberty to exhibit was a fresh encouragement, even an exceptional stimulus. The figures, therefore, rise still further in the first quarter of the century, so that in 1831 the women number 149 out of 873 exhibitors. The "staff," so to speak, of the women artists of that day, surrounding Mme. Vigée Le Brun, whose glorious and somewhat chequered career did not close till 1842, included a number of distinguished women, such as Mlle. Bevic and Mlle. Capet, pupils of Mme. Guyard; Mme. Chaudet, the wife of the sculptor; Mlle. Eulalie Morin; Mme. Adèle Romance, who also signed Romany, or Romany de Romance; the "good" Mlle. Godefroid, pupil of Baron Gérard, who helped him in so many of the portraits of contemporary cosmopolitan people of distinction, commissions for which rained in the master's studio, after the entry of the allied forces into Paris. Later on, we have Mlle. Cogniet; Mme. Filleul; Mme. Rude, the wife of the great sculptor, who had a severe yet confident talent. Lastly, there was the woman artist who benefited by all the advantages of fashion, Mme. Haudebourt-Lescot.
French School, 1755-1842