“We do know that the leading collectors of the time had paintings by her,” says Vergara. But beyond that the details of her life remain a mystery. We can perhaps gain some clues to her personality from the numerous miniature self-portraits reflected in the gilt cups and goblets of her paintings. This was yet another innovation; no still life painter had previously thought to depict themselves in this way. Vergara sees it as a discreet but assertive proclamation of her worthiness, not only of being a painter, but also a woman painter. “How could you not read into that a certain will to be recognised?” Perhaps now, she will be.

Portrait of a lady

Unlike Peeters, the life of Louise Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun is well documented. She was the most successful, and expensive, portrait painter of the 18th Century, yet when the retrospective of her work opened at Paris’ Grand Palais in 2015, few outside academia had heard her name.

A precociously gifted artist known for her wit and beauty, Le Brun had established a portrait studio while still in her teens. At 23 she painted the first of many portraits of Marie Antoinette, whose direct intervention finally allowed her to enter the Académie Royale, from which she had previously been excluded due to her marriage to Charles Le Brun, an art dealer. Renowned for her exquisite treatment of colour, fabric and texture she could also, “capture a likeness like nobody,” says curator of the Paris exhibition, Joseph Baillio.