Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, an avant-garde portraitist

One of the Greatest Portraitists of Her Time

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, born on April 16, 1755, in Paris, was a remarkable painter of the French Neoclassical era.

Her precocious talent was nurtured by her father, himself a painter, who provided her with her first drawing lessons. From an early age, she demonstrated an exceptional ability to capture life and emotion through her brushstrokes.
Her formal training began under the guidance of Gabriel François Doyen, a renowned painter of the time, who honed her technical and stylistic skills. She also spent time studying the works of the Old Masters at the Louvre, which enriched her understanding of composition and light.
At just twenty years old, she was already an established artist in Paris, specializing in portraits. Her meteoric success was due to her ability to capture the personalities of her subjects with grace and sensitivity. Her style, characterized by soft colors and delicate details, earned her recognition among the French high society.
She quickly became the favorite portraitist of Queen Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, creating several iconic portraits of the queen. Her close relationship with the queen provided her with privileged access to the court, allowing her to produce intimate and majestic portraits that immortalized Marie Antoinette’s grace and beauty.

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun continued to paint with passion throughout her life, despite the challenges she faced during the French Revolution. After fleeing France in 1789 to escape political turmoil, she lived and worked in Italy, Austria, and Russia. It wasn’t until 1802 that she was able to return to France, where she continued painting until her death in 1842, leaving behind an immortal artistic legacy.

An innovative Self-Portrait

The painting "Madame Vigée-Le Brun and Her Daughter" is an iconic self-portrait created in 1786 in which she is depicted with her daughter, Julie (Jeanne-Lucie-Louise). What makes this work particularly remarkable is the innovative approach adopted by the portraitist to depict her own face.

In this painting executed in 1786, Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun appears smiling, with a radiant expression, and her mouth is slightly open, revealing her teeth. At that time, such representation was quite unusual in official portraits or self-portraits. Indeed, artistic conventions often dictated more neutral or serious expressions, and open smiles were rare, if not nonexistent. This artist's approach reflects a desire for authenticity and spontaneity by challenging the rigid norms of representing femininity and dignity in the art of her time. This bold and lively representation gives the work a human and warm quality, echoing the personality and temperament of the artist herself. Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun's innovation also lies in her ability to capture the intimacy and mother-daughter bond. The benevolent gaze and shared tenderness between the mother and child are evident through facial expressions and gestures.

Portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette

She is credited with the most iconic representations of Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI, through two paintings executed in 1783.

In the first painting, Marie Antoinette is presented in an intimate setting, wearing a light and casual muslin indoor dress, far from the splendors of the court. The artist captured a moment of relaxation and simplicity. Her posture is delicate, her face is gentle, and her gaze is calm, reflecting a certain natural grace. This less formal representation of the queen sparked intense criticism, leading her to create a second, much more formal composition presenting the queen in a grand robe adorned with sumptuous court attire.

In a letter to Princess Kurakin in 1829, Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun wrote:
I have successively painted several other portraits of the Queen at different times. In one, I painted her only up to her knees, wearing a naracal gown and placed in front of a table, on which she is arranging flowers in a vase. It's safe to say that I much preferred to paint her without much of a gown, and especially without much of a basket. These portraits were given to her friends, some to ambassadors. One of them shows her wearing a straw hat and a white muslin gown with sleeves pleated across, but quite tightly fitted: when this one was exhibited in the salon, the wicked were quick to say that the queen had had herself painted in a chemise (period undergarment); for it was 1786, and slander was already beginning to be heaped upon her. Nevertheless, the portrait was a great success...

In this painting, Marie Antoinette is depicted in all her majesty and splendor, with undeniable royal elegance. The luxurious gown, sparkling jewels, and elaborate hairstyle highlight the queen's royal status. This painting became an icon of the French monarchy and reinforced Marie Antoinette's image as a symbol of royalty, despite her eventual demise on the guillotine amidst the revolutionary turmoil of 1789.