Self portrait Constance Mayer (Marie-Françoise-Constance Mayer-La Martinière) (9 March 1775 in Chauny, Picardy – 26 May 1821, Paris); French painter of portraits, allegorical subjects, miniatures and genre works. She had "a brilliant but bitter career." ...She studied with Pierre-Paul Prud'hon beginning in 1802, but they did not have the typical pupil-master relationship. In many ways there were more like peers. They had both exhibited at the salon and unlike Prud'hon, she had received a better education in art, and he was known for his talent in drawing, particularly complex historic compositions. ...she served as Prud'hon's assistant, raised his 5 children and was known as his "the favorite pupil." ...As was often the case with women artists who were associated with better known male artists, there were claims made that she did not produce all the work attributed to her and because of her long relationship with Prud'hon, it is still not well understood exactly what he did and what she did. This confusion is in large part due to the fact that the two artists collaborated on several works: he sketched the design and she made the paintings. Many were exhibited under her name, but when the works became part of public collections they were attributed to Prud'hon. For instance, Venus and Cupid sleeping now attributed to Mayer was initially attributed in the Wallace Collection to Prud'hon. Prud'hon's wife died and Mayer had expected that she would marry him. Prone to depression throughout her life, this prompted a crisis in Mayer's life, "when Prud'hon refused to acknowledge her assistance and marry her after the many years she had served as his assistant and his housekeeper", she then seized "the artist's razor, drew it across her throat." Prud'hon organized a retrospective of her works the following year but, distressed by her death, died in 1823. They are buried together in Paris's Père Lachaise cemetery. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Mayer] undefined

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