French women artists began the practice of self-portraiture rather late – about fifteen years before the Revolution – in a context which raises the questions of both their professional status (the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture admitted women, but starting in 1770 their number was limited to four) and their identity as artists.The appearance of self-portraiture was not an isolated phenomenon:it took on considerable importance during the Revolution, as can be seen by the exhibition of more than sixty self-portraits or portraits by women of women painters at work at the different Salons. Starting with a formal analysis of the first self-portraits completed between 1770 and 1790 by Marie-Suzanne Roslin, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Gabrielle Capet and Marie-Guillemine Leroulx de Laville,we examine how artists transformed this genre into a true political art. The intention of course was for the woman artist to establish herself as a sovereign subject, but also to conquer new territory within the City.Supported by women with political power (the queen Marie-Antoinette and Mesdames),women artists implemented a legitimization of their status as creators, which most likely explains why the last quarter of the eighteenth century has been a golden age of women’s painting.