Focus on this artwork and explain the Early history and creation.
Labille-Guiard was born in Paris on 11 April 1749, the youngest of eight children. She 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 time planning this painting and there is a chalk study by Labille-Guiard of the two heads of her students where she investigates the closeness of the students heads and the effect of the light. The figure on the left, Marie-Gabrielle Capet, was one of the most talented students and Labille-Guiard's favourite. She lived with the artist even after Labille-Guiard married her first teacher's son, the painter François-André Vincent. The painting shows Labille-Guiard in a gown and straw hat, and she depicts the materials complexity and the reflection of the dress in the parquet floor. The arrangement of the students heads shows her skill in presenting the interplay of light between their faces. The students are less formally dressed, and in the background are statues of a vestal virgin and a bust of the artist's father. 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.
vestal virgin parquet Marie-Gabrielle Capet left François-André Vincent