This is me

In a bid for immortality, painters through the ages have returned to the face they know best. Yet these self-portraits are not necessarily a window into the artist’s soul, believes Matthew Dennison

- Matthew Dennison

SURELY Adélaïde Labille-Guiard can be forgiven her complacency? The image of herself that dominates Self-Portrait with Two Pupils of 1785 leaves us in no doubt that the artist, more than her pretty pupils, is the viewer’s intended focus. For years, the 30-something Parisian shopkeeper’s daughter had sought escape from an unhappy marriage by immersing herself in painting. In 1783, her long training paid off. Labille-Guiard was one of two women admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture; four years later, she was appointed official painter to Louis XVI’s exacting unmarried aunts, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire. Little wonder she took such pleasure in identifying herself so uncompromisingly with her vocation. Labille-Guiard’s self-portrait revels in her status as an acclaimed and fashionable artist: a moment of celebration as much as an advertisement of her talents. The painting suggests, too, a sense of humour.