Constance Mayer

Self-portrait, 1801

Marie-Françoise Constance Mayer-La Martinière , better known as Constance Mayer (born March 9, 1775 in Chauny , Picardy , † May 26, 1821 in Paris ) was a French painter .

Life

Mayer was a student of the painter Jean-Baptiste Greuze . At the age of twenty she was accepted at the first exhibition at the Paris Salon in 1795, and she continued to exhibit regularly for the next few years.

Pierre Paul Prud'hon: Marie-Françoise Constance Mayer-La Martinière, 1804

Around 1798 she met the painter Pierre Paul Prud'hon and became his pupil. She supported the somewhat business-unfit painter financially and later fell in love with him. When his wife was brought to a closed institution in 1800, she looked after Prud'hon's children. T. the household and established important contacts for him at the imperial court. The fact that Prud'hon was hired as a drawing teacher for Empress Marie-Louise was due to her mediation.

During this time, Constance Mayer created many works that are still difficult to classify today. Many of these pictures were sold under the name “Prud'hon” in order to achieve a higher price.

When Prud'hon was given an apartment with a studio by the Sorbonne , he made sure that she too was assigned an apartment (also with a studio) on the same floor.

It is certainly no longer clear why Constance Mayer committed suicide. On May 26, 1821 at around 11 a.m. she said goodbye to her student Sophie Duprat and a short time later cut her throat in her studio. Contemporary rumors spoke of artistic self-doubt, but also of Prud'hon's marriage promise not being kept.

The following year, Prud'hon showed a comprehensive exhibition of her artistic work in the exhibition of the Paris Salon.

Works

• The dream of happiness (1819)

Web links

Commons : Constance Mayer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Constance Mayer. In: FemBio. Women's biography research (with references and citations).