Royalists to Romantics: Spotlight on Marie Guilhelmine Benoist

Close-up black and white photo of an older woman with light skin and cropped hair. She holds up two small, speckled eggs to her eyes, the right one just visible. She sits in a bright, sun-lit room, a window on her right and wears a dark blazer and wrist watch.

In Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections, 77 works by 35 artists display the talents of French Revolution-era women artists. Their paintings are windows into their careers and the singular challenges of their time. The catalogue that NMWA has published to illustrate Royalists to Romantics includes essays as well as individual artist biographies that give insight into the lives of women artists working in France between 1750 and 1848. This excerpt explores the life of one the the show’s featured artists, Marie Guilhelmine Benoist.