Le Brun was received only by order of the King. Her own autobiography, as well as the pamphlets of the time, depict for us the powerful rivalry which existed, and also the many calumnies with which the three women painters were attacked (there was a third candidate, Mme. Vallayer Coster), even in their private life, the persecution of offensive insinuations, and the existence of the accusation so often levelled against women painters, that their work is not their own. Posterity has reconciled the rivals on the walls of our galleries. If Mme. Vigée Le Brun certainly holds pride of place, Mme. Guyard, by her more solid talent, perhaps more characteristic, has an enviable position at her side. By the side of these celebrated women there are a few others of whom the recollection is not quite so keen, but who were not without a touching grace, though they lived their life within the sphere of their masters' influence, illuminated by the renown of these masters and breathing their atmosphere. It would not be right to say that these women artists copied their masters, or slavishly imitated them, but they transposed their qualities, elevated them by feminising them. Of these, I may mention Mlle. Ledoux, who followed in the wake of Greuze; Mlle. Marguerite Gérard, who lived under the shadow of Fragonard; and that exquisite and sorrowful figure, Mlle. Constance Mayer, whose devotion for her master Prudhon found its supreme expression in her tragic end. Less brilliant, rather hidden in the twilight of history, these women yet exercise on our thoughts an influence more subtle and delicate, and more penetrating.