Capet, Gabrielle (1761–1817)

One of the most popular French miniature portraitists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born Marie Gabrielle Capet on September 6, 1761, in Lyon, France; died in 1817.

It is unknown how Gabrielle Capet moved from a modest life in the provinces where her father was a domestique, or household servant, to Paris where she trained as a painter. There is speculation that her great talent inspired a local patron to sponsor her training and relocation. In Paris, Capet entered the studio of Adelaide Labille-Guiard , and she would display lifelong devotion to her mentor, living in her household from 1782 and caring for Labille-Guiard during her final illness.

Capet's public debut came in the Exposition de la Jeunesse (1781), where she would exhibit for four years. Though she began with pastel and oil portraits, her specialty became portrait miniatures; some conjecture that the switch was made to avoid competition with Labille-Guiard and to forge her own identity as an artist. Her first dated miniature is from 1787, the same year in which Capet received a commission to paint the royal princesses. In 1791, in large part due to the efforts of Labille-Guiard, the official Salon was opened to women, and Capet, who would send work there until 1814, was one of 21 women and 236 men whose works were represented.

Capet's patrons were primarily educated bourgeois artists, writers, politicians and actors. Her miniature representing the sculptor Houdon at work on a bust of Voltaire, considered among her finest, was stolen from the museum in Caen. Though known primarily for the quality and popularity of her miniatures, Capet is also considered an excellent larger-scale portraitist in pastels and oil. Of the approximately 30 oil paintings, 35 pastel, and 85 miniatures of Capet's catalogued by Doria, the majority were in private French collections and are today untraceable.