In 1781, after seven years of marriage, Marie Antoinette gave birth to daughter Marie Therese

Marie Antoinette would give birth to three more children

Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun.
Marie Antoinette with Rose. 1783.
http://bastille-day.com/biography/Marie-Antoinette

Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun. 
Marie Antoinette en Chemise.  1783.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Marie_Antoinette_rose.jpg

In 1783 Adelaide Labille Guiard and Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun were elected to the French Academy

The Academy protested the election of Lebrun (and the idea of more than one female admission at one time)
but Louis overruled and ordered the election under Marie's pressure

Adelaide Labille-Guiard. Self-Portrait with Two Pupils. 1785.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams, 2005.

Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun. Self-portrait. 1790.
Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Twelfth ed. Vol. 1. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 2005. 2 vols.

Denounced for depicting “an ugly queen frivolously dressed and gamboling
in front of the Temple of Love at Versailles with her two children.” – Chadwick

Marguerite  Gerard.  Motherhood.  c. 1800.
Nancy G. Heller.  Women Artists: An Illustrated History.  Fourth edition.  
New York:  Abbeville Press, 2003.

Demanded that middle class women devote themselves to the care of the family, breastfeeding, and keeping a comfortable home

"[Early modern] women knew about the contraceptive effect of prolonged breast-feeding. They also made use of sponges, coitus interruptus, and abstinence, none of which was approved by the Church. Condoms made of animal bladders were known but lurked outside of respectability. The English called them 'French Letters'; the French in turn named them 'English hats.'" - Shari L. Thurer in Myths of Motherhood

average family in 17th century had 6.5 children

average family in the 18th century had 2 children

Rousseau must have seen the freedoms promised to women by birth control as threatening patriarchal control and thus advocated containing women to the domestic sphere because it was her "natural" place

Elizabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun. Peace Bringing Back Abundance. 1780.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9934/vlb14hw8.jpg

Marie-Guillemine Benoist. Portrait of a Negrese. 1800.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Marie-Guillemine_Benoist_-_portrait_d%27une_negresse.jpg

Slavery was outlawed in France in 1794 and Benoist's work became a symbol for equality

Vinnie  Ream Hoxie.  Abraham Lincoln.  1870.
Nancy G. Heller.  Women Artists: An Illustrated History.  Fourth edition.  New York:  Abbeville Press, 2003.

neoclassicism = a style of art, literature and architecture popular from the late 1700s to the early 19th century that revived classical aesthetics and forms and is characterized by strong geometric compositions, severe line, order and simplicity in style.