Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (; 16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842), also known as Madame Le Brun, was a French portrait painter, especially of women, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Her artistic style is generally considered part of the aftermath of Rococo with elements of an adopted Neoclassical style. Her subject matter and color palette can be classified as Rococo, but her style is aligned with the emergence of Neoclassicism. Vigée Le Brun created a name for herself in Ancien Régime society by serving as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette. She enjoyed the patronage of European aristocrats, actors, and writers, and was elected to art academies in ten cities.

Vigée Le Brun created 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. In addition to many works in private collections, her paintings are owned by major museums, such as the Louvre Paris, Uffizi Florence, Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg, National Gallery in London, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and many other collections in continental Europe and the United States.

Between 1835 and 1837, when Vigée Le Brun was in her 80s, she published her memoirs in three volumes (''Souvenirs'').

Biography

Early life

Born in Paris on 16 April 1755, Élisabeth Louise Vigée was the daughter of Jeanne (; 1728–1800), a hairdresser from a peasant background, and Louis Vigée, a portraitist, pastellist and member of the Académie de Saint-Luc, from whom she received her first instruction. In 1760, at the age of five, she entered a convent, where she remained until 1766. Her father died when she was 12 years old. In 1768, her mother married a wealthy jeweller, Jacques-François Le Sèvre, and shortly after, the family moved to the Rue Saint-Honoré, close to the Palais Royal. In her memoir, Vigée Le Brun directly stated her feelings about her step-father: "I hated this man; even more so since he made use of my father's personal possessions. He wore his clothes, just as they were, without altering them to fit his figure.” During this period, Élisabeth benefited from the advice of Gabriel François Doyen, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and Joseph Vernet, whose influence is evident in her portrait of her younger brother, playwright and poet Étienne Vigée.

By the time she was in her early teens, Élisabeth was painting portraits professionally. After her studio was seized for her practicing without a license, she applied to the Académie de Saint-Luc, which unwittingly exhibited her works in their Salon. In 1774, she was made a member of the Académie. On 11 January 1776, she married Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, a painter and art dealer. Vigée Le Brun began exhibiting her work at their home in Paris, the Hôtel de Lubert, and the Salons she held here supplied her with many new and important contacts. Her husband's great-great-uncle was Charles Le Brun, the first director of the French Academy under Louis XIV.

On 12 February 1780, Vigée Le Brun gave birth to a daughter, Jeanne Lucie Louise, whom she called Julie and nicknamed "Brunette".

In 1781, she and her husband toured Flanders and the Netherlands, where seeing the works of the Flemish masters inspired her to try new techniques. Her ''Self-portrait with Straw Hat'' (1782) was a "free imitation" of Peter Paul Rubens' '' Le Chapeau de Paille''. Dutch and Flemish influences have also been noted in ''The Comte d'Espagnac'' (1786) and ''Madame Perregaux'' (1789).

In 1787, she caused a minor public scandal when her ''Self-portrait with Her Daughter Julie'' (1787) was exhibited at the Salon of 1787 showing her smiling and open-mouthed, which was in direct contravention of traditional painting conventions going back to antiquity. The court gossip-sheet ''Mémoires secrets'' commented: "An affectation which artists, art-lovers and persons of taste have been united in condemning, and which finds no precedent among the Ancients, is that in smiling, adame Vigée LeBrunshows her teeth." In light of this and her other ''Self-portrait with Her Daughter Julie'' (1789), Simone de Beauvoir dismissed Vigée Le Brun as narcissistic in ''The Second Sex'' (1949): "Madame Vigée-Lebrun never wearied of putting her smiling maternity on her canvases.”

Marie Antoinette

As her career blossomed, Vigée Le Brun was granted patronage by Marie Antoinette. She painted more than 30 portraits of the queen and her family, leading to the common perception that she was the official portraitist of Marie Antoinette. At the Salon of 1783, Vigée Le Brun exhibited ''Marie-Antoinette in a Muslin Dress'' (1783), sometimes called ''Marie-Antoinette en gaulle'', in which the queen chose to be shown in a simple, informal white cotton garment. The resulting scandal was prompted by both the informality of the attire and the queen's decision to be shown in that way. Vigée Le Brun's later '' Marie Antoinette and Her Children'' (1787) was evidently an attempt to improve the queen's image by making her more relatable to the public, in the hopes of countering the bad press and negative judgments that the queen had recently received. The portrait shows the queen at home in the Palace of Versailles, engaged in her official function as the mother of the king's children, but also suggests Marie Antoinette's uneasy identity as a foreign-born queen whose maternal role was her only true function under Salic law. The child, Louis Joseph, on the right is pointing to an empty cradle, which signified her recent loss of a child, further emphasizing Marie Antoinette's role as a mother.

Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture

On 31 May 1783, Vigée Le Brun was received as a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. She was one of only 15 women to be granted full membership in the Académie between 1648 and 1793. Her rival, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, was admitted on the same day. Vigée Le Brun was initially refused on the grounds that her husband was an art dealer, but eventually the Académie was overruled by an order from Louis XVI because Marie Antoinette put considerable pressure on her husband on behalf of her portraitist. As her reception piece, Vigée Le Brun submitted an allegorical painting, ''Peace Bringing Back Abundance'' (''La Paix ramenant l'Abondance''), instead of a portrait. As a consequence, the Académie did not place her work within a standard category of painting—either history or portraiture. Vigée Le Brun's membership in the Académie dissolved after the French Revolution because female academicians were abolished.

Exile

In October 1789, after the arrest of the royal family during the French Revolution, Vigée Le Brun fled France with her young daughter, Julie. Her husband, who remained in Paris, claimed that Vigée Le Brun went to Italy "to instruct and improve herself", but she certainly feared for her own safety. In her 12-year absence from France, she lived and worked in Italy (1789–1792), Austria (1792–1795), Russia (1795–1801) and Germany (1801).

Italy

While in Italy, Vigée Le Brun was elected to the Academy in Parma (1789) and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome (1790). In Naples, she painted portraits of Maria Carolina of Austria (sister of Marie Antoinette) and her eldest four living children: Maria Teresa, Francesco, Luisa and Maria Cristina. She later recalled that Luisa "was extremely ugly, and pulled such faces that I was most reluctant to finish her portrait." Vigée Le Brun also painted allegorical portraits of the notorious Emma Hamilton as Ariadne (1790) and as a Bacchante (1792). Lady Hamilton was similarly the model for Vigée Le Brun's ''Sibyl'' (1792), which was inspired by the painted sibyls of Domenichino. The painting represents the Cumaean Sibyl, as indicated by the Greek inscription on the figure's scroll, which is taken from Virgil's fourth Eclogue. The ''Sibyl'' was Vigée Le Brun's favorite work. It is mentioned in her memoir more than any other work. She displayed it while in Venice (1792), Vienna (1792), Dresden (1794) and Saint Petersburg (1795); she also sent it to be shown at the Salon of 1798. It was perhaps her most successful painting, and had always garnered the most praise and attracted many viewers wherever it was displayed. Like her reception piece, ''Peace Bringing Back Abundance'', Vigée Le Brun regarded her ''Sibyl'' as a history painting, the most elevated category in the Académie's hierarchy.

Austria

While in Vienna, Vigée Le Brun was commissioned to paint Princess Maria Josefa Hermengilde von Esterhazy as Ariadne Princess Maria Josefa and its pendant Princess Karoline von Liechtenstein as Iris Princess Karoline. The portraits depict the Liechtenstein sisters-in-law in unornamented Roman-inspired garments that show the influence of Neoclassicism, and which may have been a reference to the virtuous republican Roman matron Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi. While visiting Dresden on her way to Russia, Le Brun visited the famous Dresden gallery, writing that it was without doubt the most beautiful one in all of Europe. It was there that she saw Raphael's '' Madonna di San Sisto.'' She was completely enamored by the painting, and wrote;

Russia

In Russia, where she stayed from 1795 until 1801, she was well-received by the nobility and painted numerous aristocrats, including the former king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, and members of the family of Catherine the Great. Le Brun painted Catherine's granddaughters (daughters of Paul), Elena and Alexandra Pavlovna, in Grecian tunics with exposed arms. To this end, the Empress' favourite, Platon Zubov, commented to Le Brun that the painting had scandalized the empress due to the amount of bare skin the short sleeves revealed. Le Brun was greatly worried by this and considered it a hurtful remark and replaced the tunics with the Muslin dresses the princesses wore, and added long sleeves (called Amadis in Russia). Le Brun would later be reassured in a conversation with Catherine that she made no such remark, but by then the damage had already been done. When Paul later became emperor, he expressed being upset with the alterations Le Brun made to the painting. When Le Brun told him what Zubov told her, he shrugged and said "They played a joke on you".

Catherine herself also agreed to sit for Le Brun, but she died on the very next day, which was when she had promised to sit for Le Brun. While in Russia, Vigée Le Brun was made a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg. Much to Vigée Le Brun's dismay, her daughter Julie married Gaétan Bernard Nigris, secretary to the Director of the Imperial Theaters of Saint Petersburg. Julie predeceased her mother in 1819. Le Brun painted many other people during her stay in Russia, including the emperor Paul and his consort.

Return to France and later life

After a sustained campaign by her ex-husband and other family members to have her name removed from the list of counter-revolutionary émigrés, Vigée Le Brun was finally able to return to France in January 1802. She travelled to London in 1803, to Switzerland in 1807, and to Switzerland again in 1808. In Geneva, she was made an honorary member of the Société pour l'Avancement des Beaux-Arts. She stayed at Coppet with Madame de Staël, who she painted as ''Corinne, ou l'Italie'' (1807).

In her later years, Vigée Le Brun purchased a house in Louveciennes, Île-de-France and divided her time between Louveciennes and Paris. She died in Paris on 30 March 1842, aged 86. She was buried at the Cimetière de Louveciennes near her old home. Her tombstone epitaph says "''Ici, enfin, je repose...''" (Here, at last, I rest...).

Exhibitions

During her lifetime, Vigée Le Brun's work was publicly exhibited in Paris at the Académie de Saint-Luc (1774), Salon de la Correspondance (1779, 1781, 1782, 1783) and Salon of the Académie in Paris (1783, 1785, 1787, 1789, 1791, 1798, 1802, 1817, 1824).

The first retrospective exhibition of Vigée Le Brun's work was held in 1982 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The first major international retrospective exhibition of her art premiered at the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais in Paris (2015—2016) and was subsequently shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (2016) and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa (2016).

Portrayal in popular culture

The 2014 docudrama made for French television, ''Le fabuleux destin d’Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun,'' directed by Arnaud Xainte'','' is available in English as ''The Fabulous Life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun.''

In the episode "The Portrait" from the BBC series '' Let Them Eat Cake'' (1999) written by Peter Learmouth, starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Madame Vigée Le Brun (Maggie Steed) paints a portrait of the Comtesse de Vache (Jennifer Saunders) weeping over a dead canary.

Vigée Le Brun is one of only three characters in Joel Gross's ''Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh'' (premiered in 2007), a fictionalized historical drama about a love triangle set against the backdrop of the French Revolution.

Vigée Le Brun's portrait of Marie Antoinette is featured on the cover of the 2010 album ''Nobody's Daughter'' by Hole.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun is a dateable non-player character in the historically-based dating sim video game ''Ambition: A Minuet in Power'' published by Joy Manufacturing Co.

Singer-songwriter Kelly Chase released the song "Portrait of a Queen" in 2021 to accompany the History Detective Podcast, Season 2, Episode 3 Marie Antionette's Portrait Artist: Vigée Le Brun.

Gallery

Portraits painted in France

File:Portrait Of The Artists Brother by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.jpg, ''Étienne Vigée'', 1773. Saint Louis Art Museum.
File:Vigée-Lebrun Marie Antoinette 1783.jpg, ''Marie Antoinette with a Rose'', 1783. Palace of Versailles.
File:Madame Grand (Noël Catherine Vorlée, 1761–1835) MET DP320094.jpg, '' Madame Grand'', 1783. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
File:Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun - Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Marie-Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse'', 1784. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
File:Vigée-Lebrun, Elisabeth-Louise - Charles-Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802) - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Charles-Alexandre de Calonne'', 1784. Royal Collection.
File:Vigée Le Brun Baronne de Crussol (RO 307).jpg, ''Baronne de Crussol'', 1785. Musée des Augustins.
File:Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun - Portrait of Mohammed Dervish Khan 366N10007 B3Y2Q.jpg, ''Muhammad Dervish Khan'', 1788. Private collection.
File:Comtesse de la Châtre (Marie Charlotte Louise Perrette Aglaé Bontemps, 1762–1848) MET DP320086.jpg, ''Comtesse de La Châtre'', 1789. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
File:Self-portrait with Her Daughter by Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun.jpg, ''Self-portrait with Her Daughter'', 1789. Louvre.

Portraits painted in Italy

File:Lebrun, Self-portrait.jpg, Self-portrait, painting Marie Antoinette, 1790. Uffizi.
File:Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun - Lady Hamilton as Ariadne.jpg, Emma, Lady Hamilton as Ariadne, 1790. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
File:Ritratto dell'infante Francesco di Borbone.jpg, ''Francesco di Borbone'', 1790. Museo di Capodimonte.
File:Luisa Maria Amelia Teresa di Borbone-Due Sicilie V2.jpg, ''Luisa Maria Amelia di Borbone'', 1790. Museo di Capodimonte.
File:Maria Cristina by Élisabeth Vigée.jpg, '' Maria Cristina of Bourbon'', 1790. Museo di Capodimonte.
File:Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun - Portrait of Anna Pitt as Hebe - WGA25079.jpg, '' Anne Pitt as Hebe'', 1792. Hermitage Museum.
File:LadyHamilton.jpg, Emma Hamilton as a Bacchante, 1792. Lady Lever Art Gallery.

Portraits painted in Austria

File:Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun - Portrait de la comtesse Maria Theresia Bucquoi.jpg, ''La comtesse Maria Theresia Bucquoi'', 1793. Minneapolis Institute of Art.
File:Theresa, Countess Kinsky by Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun.jpg, ''Theresa, Countess Kinsky'', 1793. Norton Simon Museum.
File:Portrait of Princess Karoline of Liechtenstein (1793) LeBrun.jpg, ''Princess Karoline of Liechtenstein'', 1793. Liechtenstein Museum.
File:Countess Siemontkowsky Bystry by Vigee le Brun.jpg, ''Countess Siemontkowsky-Bystry'', 1793. Private collection.
File:Lebrun Pelagie Sapiezyna.jpg, ''Pélagie Sapieżyna-Potocka'', 1794. Royal Castle, Warsaw.

Portraits painted in Russia

File:Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. The portrait of princess Ekaterina Nikolaevna Menshikova.jpg, ''Princess Ekaterina Nikolaevna Menshikova'', 1795. National Gallery of Armenia.
File:Anna tolstoy Vigée-Lebrun.jpg, Anna Ivanovna Baryatinskaya Tolstoy, 1796. National Gallery of Canada.
File:Ekaterina Dolgorukaya (Baryatinsky).jpg, '' Ekaterina Feodorovna Baryatinskaya-Dolgorukova'', 1796. Yamazaki Mazak Museum of Art.
File:Anna Alexandrovna Galitzin, nee Gruzinsky.jpg, Princess Ana Gruzinsky Galitzine, 1797. Baltimore Museum of Art.
File:Maria Razumovskaya by Vigée-Lebrun.jpg, alt=Maria Grigorievna Razumovskaya, Princess Golitsyna, 1797. ( Maria Razumovskaya)
File:The Barber Institute of Fine Arts - Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun - Portrait of Countess Golovina.jpg, '' Varvara Golovina'', 1797–1800. Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
File:Anna Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya by Vigée-Lebrun.jpg, ''Anna Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya'', 1798. National Museum of Women in the Arts.
File:Vigee-Lebrun–Julie-Lebrun-as-Flora.jpg, ''Julie Le Brun as Flora'', 1799. Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, Florida).

See also

* Marie-Victoire Lemoine
* Women artists

References

External links

''The Memoirs of Madame Vigée Lebrun'' at Project Gutenberg



Neil Jeffares, ''Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800'', Online Edition

Art UK: Works of art by Vigée Le Brun in British Collections


* ttp://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/vigee-le-brun ''Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France'' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art*

Katherine Baetjer: "Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France."
''Modern Arts Notes Podcast''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vigee Le Brun, Elisabeth Louise
1755 births
1842 deaths
18th-century French painters
18th-century French women artists
19th-century French painters
19th-century French women artists
Painters from Paris
French memoirists
French neoclassical painters
French portrait painters
French women painters
French women writers
Rococo painters
French women memoirists
Elisabeth
Elisabeth
Pastel artists
18th-century letter writers
19th-century letter writers
18th-century memoirists