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Picture of the day
Self-Portrait with Two Pupils
Self-Portrait with Two Pupils is a 1785 self-portrait painting by French artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. It depicts the artist with two of her pupils, Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marie-Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond. Born in Paris on 11 April 1749, Labille-Guiard grew up in a neighbourhood of artists and, on her own initiative, began painting and receiving training from them. She began to take students of her own in 1780. They were all female and she was an advocate for women's involvement in painting. Labille-Guiard spent considerable time planning Self-Portrait with Two Pupils—she produced a chalk study during this period in which she was investigating the closeness and the effect of the light on the students' heads. The finished painting is almost life-size and it has been speculated that the artist and one of the pupils are looking at a mirror. In this case Labille-Guiard is actually painting the very painting the observer sees. The painting is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Painting: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard