Self-Portrait

France in the 18th century can be considered an age of women, as women began to appear in new roles throughout society. This was also the case in the art world, where two women painters Elisabeth-Louise Vigée, Le Brun and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, began to make a living as painters at the end of the 18th century. These women were the first to be elected members of the Royal Academy of painting and sculpture, and they were followed in both the Academy and general society by a gradually increasing number of women artists. Capet, born in Lyon and trained in Paris in the studio of Labille-Guiard, was one of these women painters. Capet's name appeared as one of the 21 women who displayed works in the Salon of 1791, immediately after the French Revolution. In this self-portrait, Capet is shown holding drawing chalk clasped in a holder as she faces the easel. The painting is a splendid rendition of her youthful face, showing her in the fresh beauty of her 22nd year. The blue satin dress, boldly open at the chest, was fashionable for her day and blue ribbons of the same material reveal the gay lightness of the 18th century. However, in addition to its light Rococo sensuality, the painting also reveals a direct, simple expression that prefigures the styles of the coming age. By this point the storm of the French Revolution was forming on the horizon, and the art world also felt the gathering power of the idealism engendered by the art of the great cultures of the past, Greece and Rome, along with the realism suitable to the citizenry classes that were just then beginning to appear in society. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.56)