Could it be said that Marie-Victoire Lemoine’s success stemmed from the fact that she never married?

That she remained unbothered by the male sex? I’m not gonna come right out and say yes, but the case is strengthened by the fact that two of her married sisters were also artists, and had much less professional success. Just sayin'.

Lemoine was born into a middle-class family and was able to find her way as an artist in a world in which the arts were dominated by men. Although she studied with painter François Guillaume Ménageot, she was arguably more influenced by Louise Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. She lived in a house owned by this fellow badass lady and her husband while studying with Ménageot. 

Lemoine was lucky enough to work at a time in which the Parisian Salons were opening up to a wider array of artists. Before the 1790s, only Académie artists were allowed to show. From then on, it was a more democratic system. Lemoine showed for the first time in 1796 and would go on to exhibit many more times in the following years. In 1799, she showed a portrait of Princess Lamballe, a good friend of Marie Antoinette.

Although Lemoine was able to make a living, she gained only moderate success during the time she lived and has since been "rediscovered." That said, with her recent resurgence in popularity, more attention is being paid to her on a scholarly level, and some of those people think that she may have a wider body of work that previously known. Having signed her work simply “Lemoine,” it is possible that some of her paintings have been misattributed to male artist Jacques Antoine Marie Lemoine.