Biography about girl: lesson for aspiring artist? (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
life class
'lesson for aspiring artist?' is the definition.
(an artist might join a life drawing class)
'biography about girl' is the wordplay.
'biography' becomes 'life' (synonyms).
'about' becomes 'c' (circa).
'girl' becomes 'lass' (lass can informally mean a girl).
'life'+'c'+'lass'='LIFE CLASS'
(Other definitions for life class that I've seen before include "Where art students use live models" , "In which one models stripped-down" , "Drawing lesson" , "one drawn here" .)