It's A Man's World

One of the six male portraits Labille-Guiard painted after the controversy.

One of the six male portraits Labille-Guiard painted after the controversy.

Men in the art world felt threatened by the talent a woman like Labille-Guiard possessed. At all of her exhibitions, rumors swirled about her paintings. Parisian gossip thought that surely a man touched up her paintings, and surely, she was touched up by these men.

Such slander was not uncommon for female painters. The gossip almost always undermined their talents and suggested that these women lacked it. If a female artist ever painted something noteworthy, the public assumed a man painted on her behalf. Labille-Guiard, however, turned negative press into publicity. She painted six more male portraits, proving that there were men who believed she was a worthy painter. 

Men in the art world also liked to assume there was an inherent rivalry between Labille-Guiard and her contemporary, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, because they were women in the same male-dominated industry.