Portrait of Marie-Gabrielle Capet, 1798. by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749-1803).
Adelaide Labille-Guiard was the great rival of Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, but without family or artistic connections. Her skills were developed over a period of years, and she only began to exhibit her works in her late thirties. She first learned the art of miniature painting, the traditional art form in which women not only participated but dominated.
In the 1780s, she was admitted to the Royal Academy, and she attracted a number of prominant clients, including King Louis XVI’s sisters. Her exhibitions were popular, but she never quite equalled the fame of Vigée-Lebrun. Their rivalry was part of the Parisian artistic scene before the Revolution. Frequently, their pictures were hung side by side, inviting comparisons.
Unlike Vigee-Lebrun, Labille-Guiard was a supporter of reform, and painted a number of figures who had criticized the court and the crown. Subsequently she stayed in France during the Revolution. In 1791, she exhibited fourteen portraits of the political elite including Robespierre and Talleyrand. She used the Revolution to further the cause of women artists, and in 1790 she addressed the Academy on lifting the quota for women in that institution. The motion was opposed by David and failed.. Nevertheless, her tenacity during the Revolution gained her many commissions. The passing of the first divorce laws permitted her finally to marry her partner of many years. She died in Paris three years later, in 1803#Adélaïde Labille-Guiard