Q&A with Bridget Quinn

 

 

Bridget Quinn is the author of the book Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry & Revolution in the Life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. Her other books include Broad Strokes. Also an art historian and critic, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

Q: What inspired you to focus on the artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749-1803) in your new book?

 

A: The art and life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard comprised Chapter 3 of my first book, Broad Strokes, about 15 female artists who are significant to the history of art (and to me).

 

In that book I told a little bit about how I became, well, obsessed after first seeing Labille-Guiard’s painting “Self-Portrait with Two Pupils” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art when I was in graduate school in my early 20s.

 

In that book, I confessed that, “A sense of duty (and mad pleasure) urges me to write Labille-G’s 500-page biography” and while I did resist the 500 pages part, I could not resist dedicating a full book to a remarkable woman who, as the eighth child of a shopkeeper, and a girl, somehow climbed to the pinnacle of 18th-century French art in the years leading up the French Revolution.

 

What makes her story even more remarkable is that in addition to becoming a fabulous painter, she was a dedicated teacher of female students who risked her life to actively promote them, and women artists generally.

 

That she survived the revolution is a miracle, but her reputation as an artist, and the memory of her, has not adequately been remembered. Portrait of a Woman is an attempt to right that historical wrong – and to tell the compelling story of a life lived and art made during one of history’s most volatile times.

  

Q: The author Carol Edgarian said of the book, “Portrait of a Woman marks the latest chapter in Bridget Quinn's strikingly original and, dare I say, revolutionary work that shines a light on the unsung heroes of history, namely women.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I confess that I was floored when I first read her words. I’m beyond honored that someone with Carol Edgarian’s literary chops would call my work “revolutionary,” and grateful for Adélaïde being recognized as one of the “unsung heroes of history.” I do think that part is true, for sure.

 

And my hope is that my work as a writer and art historian offers a reconsideration of the essential figures – in the case of my books, mostly women – who have shaped the world only to be overlooked by history.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Labille-Guiard and fellow artist Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun?

 

A: My take is that their rivalry was manufactured and not really personal. They were two women artists in a field dominated almost entirely by men and it served a juicy narrative to have them held up as rivals in the court of public opinion.

 

But while the rivalry is in a way “fake,” the stakes were real. So while they probably had no reason to dislike one another personally, they were also likely wary.

 

Even now, history generally recognizes just one “exceptional woman” of a given time and place. That nod still goes to the younger, prettier, longer-lived Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun – whose own voluminous memoirs pointedly never mention Adélaïde Labille-Guiard – but it doesn’t have to be that way. There is plenty of room for more than one great woman artist of an era.

 

Rivalry makes for a great story and it’s one often utilized in the history of art (and film and stage, witness Hamilton or Amadeus), and yet we should take the reality as probably experienced very differently by the people in question.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write this book, and what do you hope readers take away from it? 

 

A: Two weeks ago, at her request, I read my 97-year-old mother the entire book. The print is small for her, the book is heavy, and she has trouble following the audiobook. So I read it to her, stopping to answer questions or discuss things as we went along. It was, without questions, one of the gifts of my life.

 

When we got to the chapter on “Self-Portrait with Two Pupils,” my mom stopped me and said, “Remember when you first took me to see that painting?” I did. I was 22 years old and passionately in love with it.

 

I couldn’t wait to show my visiting mom, who was baffled when I said the imposing figure in the painting, in a voluminous low-cut silk gown while seated at her easel, was a feminist, and I was annoyed she didn’t “get it” the way I did. In a way, writing the book three decades later was a way of explaining it to her.

 

“Isn’t it just so incredible,” my mom said when we finished reading, “that you were so crazy about that artist so long ago and now you’ve written a book about her.” It is crazy. It’s magic.

 

As for readers of Portrait of a Woman, first and foremost I hope they just enjoy the story of an amazing life, the rollicking great tale of a bigger-than-life character who really lived.

 

And I also hope they’ll gain a little appreciation for 18th-century art and the time in history. Finally, I want them to remember the name and art of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Not long after encountering Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s painting in the Met, I left my graduate program, where I planned to pursue a Ph.D. in art history, to become a writer. I wanted to be my own kind of artist, and her example gave me the courage to try.

 

But it’s funny how life works. I thought of writing Portrait of a Woman as closing that loop. I described it in the book itself as “a dissertation for the dead.” Then, just before Portrait of a Woman came out, I had the opportunity to go back to grad school and jumped at the chance.

 

Now I’m writing a dissertation on three Norwegian women artists in America and how their art and activism helped women win the vote in this country (I also published a book in 2020 about women’s suffrage called She Votes, illustrated by 100 women artists).

 

And I’m working on my first novel. An excerpt called “Renaissance, MT” was published in Alta Journal last year.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I love talking with book groups and with students – I want to share the stories of remarkable people and their work. You can hit me up anytime: bridgetquinn@broadstrokesbook.com

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Bridget Quinn.