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In her time, 18th-century French artist Adélaïde
Labille-Guiard was considered a trailblazer for women
in the arts. Not only was she one of the first women
accepted into the prestigious Académie Royale in
France—at a time when only up to four women were
admitted each year—but she also was a champion for
young female artists. She would hold mentorships
and studio sessions for them and in 1790 proposed to
the Académie Royale’s governing board that women
should be admitted in unlimited numbers and serve
on the board. Both motions were approved. She also
was a painter for the Royal family, with one of her
commissions coming from the King’s brother Count
of Provence, who was later Louis XVIII of France.
However, three centuries later—even though she has
artwork in public collections including the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art—Labille-
Guiard’s name is mostly forgotten. It has gone the way
of many of her contemporaries, including Elisabeth
Louise Vigée Le Brun, who are often overlooked for
their male counterparts of the period.
Since she was a young girl, artist Gabriela Gonzalez
Dellosso has gone on trips to the Met. In 2008, while
preparing for her first solo exhibition in New York City,
Dellosso took a break to visit the famed institution
accompanied by her mother. Making her way through
the halls, as she had many times throughout her life,she stumbled across a painting she had never noticed
before. Whether it was just coming on display, or one
she happened to skip over, it immediately captivated
her attention. The painting was Labille-Guiard’s Self-
Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761-
1818) and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond
(died 1788).
“I just loved the painting and went up to it and
I saw it was by a woman painter I’d never heard of
before,” Dellosso recalls. “I also loved the story I read
on the label.”
As a member of the Académie Royale, Labille-
Guiard was allowed to enter work into the biennial
exhibition the school hosted. She submitted this
piece—depicting herself at an easel and two female
artists behind her studying the work—in an almost
rebellious stand against the limitations placed on
female artists. “She had a few pupils and they could
never exhibit their work in this important exhibi-
tion,” says Dellosso. “In a sarcastic statement she put
them in her painting, and so they were in the show
via her painting.”
Back in her studio, Dellosso continued her work for
her solo exhibition. All the while, however, this narra-
tive and painting stuck with her. “I had been working
on the paintings for my show, and I kept thinking
about that painting for some reason. It kept poppingA Brush with
HerStory
Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso spotlights historic women
artists in her newest museum exhibition.
BY ROCHELLE BELSITO