Woman artist giving a drawing lesson (Self-portrait)

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Paris in 1797, Louise-Adéone Drölling showed artistic aptitude from a young age and was trained as a painter and draughtsperson by the age of 13.  Drölling began her career beside her father Martin and her older brother Michel-Martin. The influence of her father, who was a genre painter, led her to be interested in depicting interior scenes as illustrations of daily life.

Drölling was not a prolific artist but was highly regarded in her lifetime – in 1827 and 1831 her work was exhibited in the Salon des Amis des Arts and she received a gold medal for the work Interior with young woman tracing a flower (now in the Saint Louis Art Museum). Drölling’s date of death is unknown but she died before 30 April 1836 as this was the date of her inventaire apres deces (inventory after death). Only a small number of works were listed at the time of her death and in some cases her works have been misattributed to her father or brother.

Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980

ESSAY: Woman giving a drawing lesson

This work depicts a scene typical of early nineteenth century French taste. Two young women can be seen in a warm interior decorated in Empire fashion, lit by sunlight softly emanating from the window on the left side of the composition. The scene shows one woman teaching another to draw and is thought to be a self-portrait asserting the artist’s skill and merit as teacher.

Lit by the soft light emanating from the shrouded window to the left of the composition, Drölling’s painting depicts artist and teacher in a well-appointed domestic interior. Believed to be a self-portrait, Drölling – the young teacher – gazes boldly from the canvas, while her student remains engrossed in her sketch. In France, women were denied access to the Academy, resulting in many women artists receiving their training through private workshops in homes resembling Drölling’s. The social difference between the two figures is overtly apparent through their different styles of dress: Drölling is wearing the more utilitarian, coloured dress favoured by the middle classes (albeit highlighted with a red shawl, made fashionable by the popular Empress Josephine), while the aristocratic student wears a finer gown of light-grey silk.

Born in Paris at the end of the eighteenth century, Louise-Adéone Drölling studied with her father Martin and brother Michel-Martin and is known to have been artistically trained by the age of thirteen. Her career as an artist was cut short by her untimely death at the age of thirty-nine, and she left only a small body of work, some of which was mis-attributed to her father or brother.

Tansy Curtin, Curator, International Art pre-1980