Attributes of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture

Joining the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris normally took years and two separate votes. A candidate was first approved, and only later, after delivering a reception piece, received as a full member. On 28 July 1770 the Academy did both at once, unanimously, for a young unmarried painter of still life, Anne Vallayer, on the strength of two canvases. This is one of them.

She chose to paint the tools of the arts the Academy taught. On a stand at the back sits a dark bust of a young woman with a cloth thrown over her head, and in front of it a white plaster torso, the kind of cast students drew from for years before they were allowed a living model. A palette loaded with paint lies across the front with brushes in a pot beside it. Architecture gets rolled plans, a drawn ground plan, a set square and a pair of compasses, and at the right stand portfolios and bound books.

The signature at the lower right reads Mlle Vallayer 1769, so the picture was finished before the meeting that admitted her. It went on show with its companion, the Attributes of Music, at the Salon of 1771.