Museum trip to the Met

For this project I decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 5th ave, with a friend. I have always loved the Met and even though I have been there quite a few time, I have never been able to see the whole thing. Since each of the galleries had different theme I did my research in finding one. The portrait is by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and it is titled ‘Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond’. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was one of the four women who were allowed into the French Académie Royale in 1783 to study art at the Royal Academy. Gallery 613 at the Met showcases that year in France when women were allowed into the Royal Academy of Painting and Drawing. There was a limit as to how many women could join, also there were even restrictions to their learning, such as not being able to paint/draw the male nude to study. There weren’t a lot of recognized female artists at this time. The women that do stand out are the ones that really have to push and strive to be seen as a professional. Most of the women who were admitted to the Royal Academy continued on to become portrait painters and painting public figures.

Labille-Guiard’s self-portrait is a larger than life, 83 x 59 1/2 in. oil painting on canvas. The grand scale of this painting itself is a proclamation of who she is, and what she can do.She taught other women artists and was active to seek out equal rights for women at the Academy. In her painting we Labille-Guiard dressed in expensive attire to show her status. She is holding her palette, brushes, there are canvases in the background and she is sitting infront of her easel to signify that she is an artist. Having all of her materials around her show how immersed in her art she is. The two women that are behind her are her pupil, showing that she is an active teacher. They are behind her, holding on to her chair to show a connection that she has with her students.

The paintings in the gallery were (and still are)  really phenomenal for the time. For a women to have a profession that was not mother or wife was almost unheard of. These women made a statement to be heard as well as seen for their profession. In John Bergers book ‘Ways of Seeing’ he talks about the the painting being an object to own. That to have a painting of something is like owning the object itself. It is put on display and it is something valuable. This self portrait does not feel like a mere object to me, instead it reads like a resume of a woman who is bold. She paints herself in the same soft manner that other court portraits are also painted. She appears soft, delicate, making contact with the viewer. She is dressed extravagantly, with bright colors. However the symbols in the painting are like the skills section on a resume.

This painting was the only self portrait in the gallery, and it is also the biggest painting. I believe the curator wanted to show a progressive point in history. Like I mentioned earlier there were not a lot of women artists at the time. These women were the (social) rule breakers of the upper class who wanted to be respected for their work, and not looked down on simply because of their sex.