FINDART

Sign inSign up

The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman Painter

1796 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

genre

This picture is believed to be a painting of Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun by Lemoine, who pays homage to her by showing herself as the pupil. Vigée-Lebrun is shown palette and mahlstick in hand, pausing from work on an Antique-inspired subject, a votary of Athena, goddess of wisdom and patron of the arts, while her pupil makes a copy of it. It can be interpreted as eulogising Vigée-Lebrun as the original ground-breaker, the high priestess of female artists.

Loading map…
The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman Painter

About the Artist

Marie-Victoire Lemoine

1754 – 1820

French painter, born in Paris. Like her two sisters Marie-Denise Villers and Marie-Élisabeth Gabiou, she became a painter. She was part of a generation of women who were able to enjoy considerable success as professional artists. Before this time, women were rarely able to become artists, with a few exceptions who were all sisters or daughters of artists. She was one of the first women artists to come into prominence in Paris once the official Salon was opened to women in 1791. Lemoine studied with François-Guillaume Ménageot and is thought to have been a student of her heroine Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. She was admitted to the Académie Royale in 1783, aged 29. She produced miniatures as well as oils and genre paintings.

View all works →