The Interior of a Woman Painter's Studio
Artist: Marie Victoire Lemoine (French, 1754–1820)
Date: 1789
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States
Description
Although she painted this work in 1789, Lemoine could not exhibit it at the prestigious Paris Salon until 1796, when post-Revolutionary reforms greatly expanded women artists’ access to the official art world. The title suggests an ideal or generic depiction of women artists, but those close to Lemoine recognized a self-portrait with her sister Marie Elisabeth, who was also a painter. Lemoine’s skills in still life and portraiture, categories in which women most often trained, are readily visible, but a history painting—the highest category in the academic system and usually considered in this period as ill-suited to women - is underway on the easel in the scene.
