Why read The Portraitist?

Book cover of The Portraitist: A Novel of Adelaide Labille-Guiard

Book description

Based on a true story, this is the tale of Adelaide Labille-Guiard's fight to take her rightful place in the competitive art world of eighteenth-century Paris.

With a beautiful rival who's better connected and better trained than she is, Adelaide faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Portraitist as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Margaret McNellis

Author

Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and a stifling patriarchal environment, Adelaide Labille-Guiard will do anything to live as an artist and as her own woman. This is one of the most exquisite books I’ve ever read, especially about a female striving to claim her agency in a past setting. Dunlap’s writing is beautiful and emotive, and Adelaide’s arc is satisfying with that rare treat of being both surprising and inevitable. I was fortunate enough to beta-read this book, and it quickly became one of my favorites. I bought my copy the moment it was published.

From Margaret's list on The best historical fiction featuring a female protagonist claiming her agency.