The Attributes of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and The Attributes of Music by Anne Vallayer-Coster

Women's History Month: A month celebrating women of history! I will be posting media and book recommendations, highlighting women from (mostly) the 18th century, and otherwise sharing content with an emphasis on women in history.

 

The Attributes of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture by Anne Vallayer-Coster, 1769.

Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818) was a French painter who was--and is--best known for her still life paintings. Vallayer-Coster achieved significant fame and success, including an admission to the famed Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1770. She was only 26 years old at the time.

At the exhibition of 1771, where her admission paintings were displayed to the public, Denis Diderot would later note: "...if all new members of the Royal Academy made a showing like Mademoiselle Vallayer's, and sustained the same high level of quality, the Salon would look very different!

The two paintings featured in this post, titled The Attributes of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the Attributes of Music, were the pair that she submitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture--and it was their reception that earned her an unanimous election into the academy.

The Attributes of Music by Anne Valleyer-Coster, 1770.