By DARLA MACCAMMON
Director, Lakeland Art Association

WINONA LAKE — Kim Reiff directs the art program at Grace College. She is currently offering her students a wonderful experience in the history of art by teaching them about famous women artists. She has pointed out that those who study ancient cave drawings have discovered that much of the original art was done by women.

This has been discovered through measuring the size of the handprints left behind as well as DNA results. Women have been involved in the creation of art for a very long time. We are going to spend the next little while delving into some of the struggles and successes women have made in a field that has often been relegated exclusively to men.

This week we are going to learn about Adélaïd Labille-Guiard. Labille-Guiard used this painting of herself and two students, titled “Self-Portrait with Two Pupils” to attempt to engage patronage through the Parisian Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1785. At the time this was entered, the academy had only permitted four female members — and they were from families of artists who were supporting and encouraging their art.

Labille-Guiard was the daughter of a fashionable boutique shopkeeper who had no connections to help his daughter. Not allowed in the Academy’s schools, women artists had to prove themselves by placing work in exhibitions on the edges of those “officially” sanctioned. Guiard was assisted when an Academy member, François-André Vincent took an interest in her, and allowed her to study under him. Before they married, she was finally admitted to the Academy May 31, 1783.

This was not an uneventful occasion because controversy immediately came out in pamphlets that circulated all kinds of libelous statements and sexual innuendo about her admittance. Vincent was accused of touching up her work as well as her person. Guiard set about to take legal proceedings against her adversaries through a well-positioned patron that knew the excellence of her work and the falseness of the rumors that were flying.

Guiard went on to obtain patronage from the king’s aunts but continued to be a target of controversy in particular about the admittance of females into this largely male institution. The Reign of Terror occurred during her lifetime but she found haven in a refuge in the country.

In her later years she continued to produce exquisite portraits but a long illness eventually caused her death. Many of her paintings had been incinerated during the Reign of Terror, but we are fortunate that others, such as her self-portrait survive today and can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum and the National Museum of Women in The Arts.

Upcoming and Current Events:

• The Lisa Bemish exhibit opened at Warsaw City Hall Gallery on July 22. Visit 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.
• Adult and Children Workshops always available. Call (574) 594-9950 for information.
• Brenda Stichter exhibit opens at LAA on Sept. 3-26. A reception will be held at 1 p.m. Sept. 6.
• The 3rd annual Eel River Art Festival in North Manchester will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 12.
• The 9th annual Warsminster Dog Show and Furball will open at 6 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Warsaw Toyota Dealership. Several art pieces will be auctioned off that evening, and food will be catered by Cerulean.
• LAA is located at 107 N. First St., Pierceton, or www.lakelandartassociation.org, or Facebook. Contact your author/artist Darla at [email protected] with questions.