Nevertheless there was an appreciable number of women artists in France throughout the course of the 18th century. Their social rank was strictly confined. There were no "women of quality," such as were to be found in the world of letters, no representatives of the _bourgeoisie_ even. The women artists, with very rare exceptions, all belonged to artist families. They were the wives, the daughters, the sisters or the nieces of artists, and this tradition, as we shall see, even continued long into the 19th century. Catherine Duchemin, the first woman elected to the Academy, was the wife of the sculptor, Girardon, while Geneviève and Madelaine Boulogne, both academicians, were related to distinguished painters of that name. Mlle. Reboul was Mme. Vien, and Mme. Labille des Vertus became Mme. Vincent on her second marriage. Then we have Mlle. Natoire, sister of the director of the Academy of France, Catherine van Loo, one of the innumerable family of Van Loo, Mme. de Valsaureaux, _née_ Parrocel, of the no less numerous family of Parrocel, Mme. Therbouch, _née_ Liscewska, all this family, father, mother, and daughters alike, being painters; and Mme. Vigée herself, who married the picture dealer Le Brun, was the daughter of a portrait painter. During the 17th and 18th centuries these great artist families intermarried to such an extent as to form a series of veritable dynasties--for instance, those of the Coypels, the Coustous, the Van Loos, the Boulognes, the Parrocels, and the Vernets, to name but a few of the most renowned. Artist families became allied just as do those of lawyers and merchants. Thus their social life grew more limited, each category more and more distinct and apart, for these artist families rarely strayed beyond their own _milieu_. And those very circumstances which tended to retard the development of the artistic calling in woman exerted their influence over the inspiration of the female artist. The impossibility of pursuing very far the study of anatomical drawing, owing to the nudity of the model, diverted them almost entirely to the studies of observation and of imitation, to portrait work, and flowers and animals and still-life. Later, when they obtained greater liberty, they devoted themselves to _genre_ of a size and kind demanding less substantial preparation. But as for composition, they never touched "history," as it was termed--that is, lofty, heroic or allegorical subjects--and if there should chance to have been any exception to this rule, it was simply in the direction of religious _motifs_. [Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL, ABOUT 1793-1824 Portrait of Gaëtano Apollino Baldassare Vestris, Dancer (1729-1808). Reproduced from a Photograph by permission of Braun, Clément & Co., Paris Madame Adèle Romany, née de Romance, Painter exhibited from 1793 to 1824]