Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order)

by Bridget Quinn

On May 31, 1783, Labille-Guiard was voted into the Royal Academy. Just the twelfth woman member since its inception, she was admitted on the same day as her “rival,” Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. For as long as both women had exhibited they’d been compared. One was mostly given good criticism only at the expense of the other, a practice not restricted to art. Personal appearance was fair game, to Labille-Guiard’s disadvantage. Vigée-Lebrun was pretty (verified by her self-portraits), wealthy, successful, and court painter to the queen. And she was the wife of an art dealer. She was originally denied Academy membership on the grounds that being in the “art business” was forbidden (a woman was identified with her husband’s profession). But this was the Royal Academy and what Queen Marie-Antoinette wanted, she generally got. And what she wanted was her painter in the Academy. One can imagine how little the Academy liked being forced to admit a woman, by a woman. They let Vigée-Lebrun (and her patron) know this by admitting Labille-Guiard on the very same day. Academy minutes specify that Vigée-Lebrun was admitted par ordre (“by order”), while after Labille-Guiard’s name it says, les voix prises a l’ordinaire (“vote taken in the usual manner”). Labille-Guiard gleefully signed the register that day as Adélaïde des Vertus. Adélaïde of the Virtues. Take that, gossips. Unfortunately, the Academy’s pleasure in their spiteful gesture was short-lived, and they quickly established a quota o...