Marie Guilhelmine Benoist Hand Numbered Limited Edition Print on Paper :"Portrait of Madeleine 1800 (Formerly known as Portrait of a Negress)"
Title: Portrait of Madeleine 1800 (Formerly known as Portrait of a Negress)
Dimensions (W x H ): Paper Size: 22 x 28 in | Image Size: 18 x 24 in
Edition | Medium: Each print is hand numbered, accompanied by a certificate signed by the Master Printer and is numbered to match the print. The editions are limited to 1880 copies. |
This Gouttelette print on paper is published with light-fast inks to BS1006 Standard onto acid-free calcium carbonate buffered stock, mould-made from 100% cotton and sourced from environmentally conscious paper suppliers. This product is exclusive to Rosenstiels.
About the Art: Superior Edition
About the Artist:
Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist was born in 1768.
A woman of aristocratic lineage, Benoist was educated by Élisabeth Vigée Lebrun in 1781 and at Jacques-Louis David's atelier in 1786. Benoist belonged to a small elite circle of professional women painters that included, among others, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Marguerite Gérard, Angélique Mongez, and Adélaide Labille-Guiard. In 1791, she exhibited her work for the first time in the Salon de Paris with her now-famous, mythology-inspired painting Psyché Faisant Ses Adieux à Sa Famille.
In 1800, six years after slavery had been abolished, Benoist exhibited Portrait d'une Négresse in the Salon, whereupon she became a symbol for women's emancipation and black people's rights. The painting was acquired by Louis XVIII for France in 1818.
In 1804, Benoist was awarded a Golden Medal in the Salon and received an annual government allowance. She inaugurated an atelier for women and Napoléon Bonaparte himself commissioned her to paint for him.
She died in 1826.
