Honor Clerk

Sexy self-advertising

Frances Borzello argues that the best way for female artists to advertise their skills was to paint self-portraits

issue 26 March 2016

At nearly eight foot high and five foot wide, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s portrait of herself with two of her students is by any reckoning a tour-de-force. Painted in 1785, it shows the artist seated at her easel, palette, brushes and mahlstick in hand, as though looking up briefly before adding to the large canvas before her.

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