Marie-Thérèse Reboul (26 February 1735—4 January 1806), commonly called Madame Vien, was a French painter and engraver of natural history subjects,

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s, and flowers. In 1757, Marie-Thérèse Reboul married the painter

Joseph-Marie Vien Joseph-Marie Vien (sometimes anglicised as Joseph-Mary Wien; 18 June 1716 – 27 March 1809) was a French painter. He was the last holder of the post of Premier peintre du Roi, serving from 1789 to 1791. Biography He was born in Montpellier. P ...

, who was nineteen years older. Nineteenth-century sources state that she was taught by her husband, but Joseph-Marie Vien's autobiography does not mention it. She may have been a student of Madeleine Françoise Basseporte. Prior to her marriage, Reboul-Vien engraved specimens for ''Sénégal: Coquillages'' (1757) by the French naturalist

Michel Adanson Michel Adanson (7 April 17273 August 1806) was an 18th-century French botanist and naturalist who traveled to Senegal to study flora and fauna. He proposed a "natural system" of taxonomy distinct from the binomial system forwarded by Linnaeus. ...

and ''Dissertation sur le papyrus'' (1758) by the French antiquarian

Anne Claude de Caylus Anne Claude de Tubières-Grimoard de Pestels de Lévis, ''comte de Caylus'', marquis d'Esternay, baron de Bransac (Anne Claude Philippe; 31 October 16925 September 1765), was a French antiquarian, proto-archaeologist and man of letters. Born in P ...

Reboul-Vien was one of only fifteen women to be accepted as full academicians in the 145-year history of the

Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (; ) was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution. I ...

in Paris. She was admitted in 1757, the same year in which she married Joseph-Marie Vien. It had been 37 years since the last woman,

Rosalba Carriera Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673 – 15 April 1757) was an Italians, Italian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. Carriera would later become known for her pastel portraits, helping popularize the medium ...

, became an academician. Reboul-Vien's husband was a prominent member of the Académie, which likely led to her acceptance. At the time, Reboul-Vien was described as "a painter of miniatures and gouaches specializing in flowers, butterflies and birds." Her

reception piece In art, a reception piece is a work submitted by an artist to an academy for approval as part of the requirements for admission to membership. The piece is normally representative of the artist's work, and the organization's judgement of its skil ...

was ''Two Pigeons Pigeons on a Tree Branch'', which she submitted to the Académie in 1762. She exhibited her works at the Salons of

1757 Events January–March * January 2 – Seven Years' War: The British East India Company Army, under the command of Robert Clive, captures Calcutta, India. * January 5 – Robert-François Damiens makes an unsuccessful assa ...

1759 In Great Britain, this year was known as the ''Annus Mirabilis'', because of British victories in the Seven Years' War. Events January–March * January 6 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis. * January 11 & ...

1763 Events January–March * January 27 – The seat of colonial administration in the Viceroyalty of Brazil is moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. * February 1 – The colonial authorities in the Province of North Carolin ...

1765 Events January–March * January 23 – Prince Joseph of Austria marries Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Vienna. * January 29 – One week before his death, Mir Jafar, who had been enthroned as the Nawab of Bengal and ...

, and

1767 Events January–March * January 1 – The first annual volume of ''The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris'', produced by British Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, gives navigators the ...

. These included watercolors of a hen with her chicks, a kestrel killing a small bird, a

golden pheasant The golden pheasant (''Chrysolophus pictus''), also known as the Chinese pheasant, and rainbow pheasant, is a gamebird of the order Galliformes (gallinaceous birds) and the family Phasianidae (pheasants). The genus name is from Ancient Greek ' ...

from China, a brooding pigeon, and a bird of prey following a butterfly. At the

Salon of 1767 The Salon of 1767 was an art exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris. It took place during the reign of Louis XV and was overseen by the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Académie Royale. It was proceeded by the Salon of 1765 and follo ...

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during th ...

praised ''A Crested Hen Watching over Her Chicks'' as a "very handsome small painting" that was "painted with great vigor and coloristic truth ... Everything's right, including the bits of straw scattered around the hen." He concluded, more critically, "I'm surprised by her hen; I didn't think she was this accomplished." Even so, reviews of Reboul-Vien's works were mostly positive. Several of her works were acquired by

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

. By the late the nineteenth century, few of her watercolors could be located.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reboul, Marie-Therese 1738 births 1806 deaths 18th-century French painters 19th-century French painters French still life painters Painters from Paris 18th-century French women painters 19th-century French women painters