Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Marie Antoinette's portrait painter.
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted the queen many times and fled the Revolution. She then became sought after all over Europe.
Élisabeth Vigée was born in Paris in 1755. Her father, Louis Vigée, was a pastel painter who encouraged her talent, but he died when she was twelve. She had no formal training but learned by copying old masters and taking advice from artists in the family's circle. Already in her teens she was supporting her mother and brother as a portrait painter. In 1776 she married the art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun. The couple had a daughter, Julie, in 1780.
In 1778 she painted Queen Marie Antoinette for the first time, and she soon became the queen's favourite painter. She portrayed her some twenty times. A portrait in which the queen wears a simple white cotton dress caused a scandal in 1783, as it was considered too informal. The grander Marie Antoinette and Her Children (1787) is at the Palace of Versailles. As early as 1783 Vigée Le Brun became a member of the French Royal Academy with the queen's support.
Her portraits are light, soft and natural. The sitters often wear simple dresses, with loose hair and a friendly expression. The Louvre has two self-portraits in which she embraces her daughter Julie, both from the second half of the 1780s. When in one self-portrait she showed her teeth in a smile, it caused a stir, as this was considered improper in portraiture. By her own account she painted some 660 portraits.
When the Revolution broke out in 1789 she fled Paris with her daughter. For twelve years she travelled around Europe, working in Rome, Naples, Vienna and St Petersburg, where she painted aristocrats and royalty. She was elected to academies in several countries. Only in 1802 did she return to France. In old age she wrote her memoirs, which give a vivid picture of her times.
Vigée Le Brun died in Paris in 1842. For a long time she was seen mainly as a charming court painter, but in recent years she has received wide attention as one of the most successful artists of the 18th century, and a woman who made her own way in a male-dominated world.