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.

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