Self-portrait

This week in DailyArt belongs to women artists. We present today's painting thanks to the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.  :)

Since 2020, this notable painting, a self-portrait by Marie-Guillemine Laville-Leroux, mostly known by her later name Benoist (1768–1826), has been part of the Kunsthalle’s collection. This work of the artist, who was only 17 years old in 1786, was created at a crucial point in her biography.  Shortly before, she had left the studio of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, where she had received her initial training, and continued with Jacques-Louis David, who was considered a classicist innovator of painting and later became a supporter of the Revolution and Napoleon.

With the gracefulness and classical idealization of her appearance, Marie Benoist echoes the portraits of her former teacher Vigée-Lebrun, while the work on the easel refers to a preliminary study of David’s 1781 painting Belisarius, which she was copying. The self-portrait thus represents an homage to the artist’s two formative idols. The manner of her self-dramatization in classical dress and with one breast half divested also alludes to allegorical representations, which, in combination with brush and palette, makes the self-portrait appear as a pictura, a personification of painting.

When the painting was shown at the annual exhibition of young artists, the Exposition de la Jeunesse, in 1786, the move from Vigée-Lebrun to David was noted as a promising step of the young painter. Living and working in the flourishing art capital of Paris, Benoist evolved into a sought-after portraitist who also took on official commissions for portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte. Her works were highly discussed and received great recognition. With the end of the Napoleonic era, she began to withdraw from public life.

P.S. We would like to remind you that it is already 2022 and if you still don't have a calendar for this year, please check our beautiful artsy wall and desk calendars here.  :))

P.P.S. Click here to see 10 famous self-portraits by female artists.  :)