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The pair soon became friends. During a conversation, Vigée Le Brun complemented the Queen on her bracelets with an antique design, which the Queen then took off and put around Vigée Le Brun's arms. Vigée Le Brun considered this gift one of her most valued possessions for the rest of her life, and wore it almost everywh... |
Aside from two pastel portraits commissioned by the Queen, Vigée Le Brun also painted other pastel portraits of Prince Ferdinand's family. |
During her stay in Berlin, she met with the General Plenipotentiary Bournonville, hoping to procure a passport to return to France. The general encouraged Vigée Le Brun to return and assured her that order and safety had been restored. Her brother and husband had already struck her name from the list of émigrés with ea... |
Return to France and stay at Paris |
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. The artist received a rapturous welcome in her home at Rue de-Gros-Chenet and was greatly hailed by the press... |
England |
Vigée Le Brun arrived at Dover, where she took the stagecoach to London, accompanied by the woman who would become her lifetime friend and chambermaid, Mme. Adélaïde, who later married M. Contat, Vigée Le Brun's accountant. Vigée Le Brun was confused by the large crowd at the quays, but was reassured that it was common... |
Upon her arrival at London she lodged at the Brunet hotel in Leicester Square. She could not sleep during her first night due to noise from her upstairs neighbor, who she found next morning was none other than the poet M. François-Auguste Parseval-Grandmaison, whom she had known from Paris. He always paced while readin... |
Wishing to find a more permanent lodging, a compatriot named Charmilly directed her to a house in Beck street, which overlooked the Royal Guards barracks. Vigée Le Brun terminated her residence there because of the noise from the barracks; in her words, "...every morning between three and four o'clock there was a trump... |
The artist visited the galleries of several prominent artists while in London, starting with the studio of artist Benjamin West. She also viewed some works by Joshua Reynolds. Vigée Le Brun was surprised to find that it was customary in England for visitors to the studios of artists to pay a small fee to the artist. Vi... |
Vigée Le Brun continued to hold soirées and receptions in her house, which although damp, was beautiful. She received many people, including the Prince of Wales, Lady Hertford and Lord Borington and the famous actress Mme. Grassini among others. Vigée Le Brun sought out other compatriots during her stay in England, and... |
Shortly after her arrival in London, the Treaty of Amiens was abrogated, and hostilities between France and the United Kingdom resumed. The British Government ordered all French people who had not resided more than a year in the UK to depart immediately. The Prince of Wales reassured Vigée Le Brun that this would not a... |
Vigée Le Brun toured the countryside during her stay in England. She started with a visit to Margaret Chinnery at Gilwell Hall, where she received a "charming welcome" and met the famous musician Viotti, who composed a song for her which was sung by Mrs. Chinnery's daughter. She painted Mrs. Chinnery and her children w... |
The artist greatly enjoyed the English countryside, describing Matlock as being as picturesque as the Swiss countryside. Vigée Le Brun also visited the Duchess of Dorset at Knole House in Kent, which had once been owned by Elizabeth I. She returned to London, where she found the Comte de Vaudreuil, and then went to Twi... |
She visited Mary Elizabeth Grenville, Marchioness of Buckingham, at Stowe. She also went to the home of Lord Moira and his sister Charlotte Adelaide Constantia Rawdon, where Vigée Le Brun further experienced the stern social milieu of English aristocracy; she spent some of the winter there. She then departed for Warwic... |
Return to France from England |
Her ship arrived in Rotterdam, where she first visited François de Beauharnais, the prefect of Rotterdam and brother in law to the Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais (brother to the late Alexandre de Beauharnais, who had been executed during The Terror). The artist was ordered to reside for eight to ten days in Rotterdam... |
She arrived in Paris and rejoiced to find her brother and her husband there, who was charged with recruiting artists for Saint Petersburg. He departed a few months later for Saint Petersburg, but Julie remained due to their failing union, though her relationship with her daughter continued to be a torment to her. She m... |
Shortly after her arrival in Paris, Vigée Le Brun was commissioned by the court painter, Denon, to paint a portrait of the Emperor's sister Caroline Bonaparte, though she had heard that her journey to England had displeased Napoleon, who had allegedly said "Madame Le Brun has gone to England to see her friends." Vigée ... |
Switzerland in 1807 |
In July 1807, the artist crossed to Switzerland, arriving first at the town of Basel, where she was received by M. Ethinger, a local banker, who threw a banquet to welcome the artist. She proceeded to Biel on the advice of Ethinger, but the roads there were so hazardous that part of the journey had to be made on foot. ... |
After traversing the rugged trails of the valley, she returned to Berne via Brientz, and then arrived at Schaffhausen where she was received by the local Burgomeister, who took her to see the Rhine Falls. After departing from Schaffhausen, she visited the city of Zürich, where she enjoyed the hospitality of General Bar... |
After taking the young daughter-in-law of de Salis with her, she departed for the small island of Ufenau in Lake Zurich, then visited Rappercheld [sic] where she continued to be mesmerized by the beauty of the countryside and the "native innocence" of the locals. After a hazardous boat ride destined for Walenstadt, th... |
After returning from Coppet to Geneva, where she was made an honorary member of the Société pour l'Avancement des Beaux-Arts, she departed in a group with the de Brac family for Chamonix, intending to visit the Sallanches mountains, the Aiguille du Goûter, and Mont Blanc. The journey was perilous. The entourage visited... |
Switzerland in 1808 |
With her desire for travel still not sated, Vigée Le Brun re-entered Switzerland in 1808 via Neuchâtel, and then visited Lucerne, where she was enchanted by the picturesque and wild town. The artist also visited Brown [sic] and the market town of Schwyz, then Zug, where she crossed Lake Zug. She visited an inn where s... |
The artist then visited Untersee, where she was fortunate to arrive in time to witness the Shepherd's festival at Unspunnen castle, which took place once every century. She was hosted by M. and Mme. Konig, who hosted all notable people who came to visit the festivals. Vigée Le Brun went to the château du Bailli to witn... |
Coincidentally, she found Madame de Staël at the festival, and joined her in the procession that followed the Bailli and his magistrates, which was joined by people from the neighboring valleys, dressed in their local costume and carrying flags representing each canton or valley. |
Return to Paris and later life |
New home at Louveciennes, the abdications of Napoleon and Bourbon restorations |
After returning to Paris from her second visit to Switzerland, Vigée Le Brun purchased a house in Louveciennes, Île-de-France near the Seine, and invited her niece (daughter of her brother Etienne) Caroline Rivière and her husband to live with her. She doted on the newlywed couple and formed a close bond with them, and... |
She departed for Paris as soon as she received the news, and communicated by letter with Joseph about the condition of her Louveciennes home, which had been ransacked and its garden destroyed by the Prussian troops. Her servant wrote to her: "I beg them to be less greedy, to content themselves with whatever I give them... |
Vigée Le Brun was exultant at the entry of the Comte d'Artois to Paris on 12 April, shortly after Napoleon had agreed to abdicate. She wrote to him about the King, to which he replied: "His legs are still bad, but his mind is in excellent form. We will march for him, and he will think for us". She attended the euphoric... |
Upon Napoleon's return from Elba, she noted the contrast between the rapturous reception the Bourbons had received the previous year and Napoleon's tepid welcome upon his return to France from his exile in Elba, after which he initiated the Hundred Days war. Vigée Le Brun exhibited her staunch royalist sympathies in he... |
Her Louveciennes home was once again looted in the Hundred Days, this time by British troops. Among the possessions lost during this incident was a lacquer box gifted to her by the Count Stroganoff during her stay at Saint Petersburg, which she had prized immensely. |
Her estranged husband died in August 1813, in their old home built on the Rue de-Gros-Chenet. Though they had drifted apart for several years, she was nonetheless sorely affected by his death. |
In 1819 she sold her portrait of Lady Hamilton as the Comaean Sibyl to the Duc de Berri, despite it being her favorite, because she wished to satisfy the Duke. She also painted two portraits of the Duchesse de Berri, initially in the Tuileries, but then finishing their sittings in her home. In the same year, her daught... |
Her journey to Bordeaux was the last time she traveled extensively. |
Friendship with Antoine Jean-Gros |
The artist formed an intimate friendship with Antoine-Jean Gros, whom she had known since he was seven years old and had painted his portrait when he was at that age, during which she had noticed an artistic inclination in the child. Upon her return to France she was surprised to find Gros had become a successful and f... |
She was greatly affected by his suicide in 1835; she had met him the day before and noted him brooding over criticism he had received over one of his paintings. |
Later years |
She spent most of her time in Louveciennes, typically eight months of the year. She formed new friendships with people including the writer and man of letters M. de Briffaut, the playwright M. Despré, the writer M. Louis Aimé-Martin, the composer M. Désaugiers, the painter and antiquarian Comte de Forbin, and the famou... |
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). It was subsequently shown at the Metropolitan Museum of... |
Portrayal in popular culture |
The 2014 docudrama made for French television, Le fabuleux destin d'Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, directed by Arnaud Xainte, and starring Marlène Goulard and Julie Ravix as the young and old Elisabeth respectively, is available in English as The Fabulous Life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. |
An episode of the 1980 BBC television series, 100 Great Paintings, presented by the art historian and author, Anita Brookner, featured Vigée Le Brun's Self-portrait with her Daughter, 1789. |
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 |
Portraits painted in Italy |
Portraits painted in Austria |
Portraits painted in Russia |
See also |
Marie-Victoire Lemoine |
Women artists |
Notes |
References |
Literature and resources |
University of Pennsylvania, Memoirs of Madame Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Translated by Lionel Strachey, Copyright 1903, by Doubleday, Page & Company, Published, October, 1903 |
External links |
Vigée-Lebrun, Louise-Elisabeth. The Memoirs of Madame Vigée Lebrun – via Project Gutenberg. |
"Artcyclopedia entry: Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun". |
Jeffares, Neil. Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800 (Online ed.). |
"Works of art by Vigée Le Brun in British Collections". Art UK. Archived from the original on 11 November 2018. |
"Gallery of works by Vigée Le Brun, articles, her memoirs, and biographical information". Archived from the original on 5 December 1998. |
"Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France". Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
Works by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) |
Katherine Baetjer: "Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France.", Modern Arts Notes Podcast |
Rice, John A.; Heartz, Daniel (2014). "Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun's Portrait of Giovanni Paisiello". In Wilcox, Beverly (ed.). Artists and Musicians: Portrait Studies from the Rococo to the Revolution. Ann Arbor: Steglein Publishing. |
Antoine Bourdelle (30 October 1861 – 1 October 1929), born Émile Antoine Bordelles, was an influential and prolific French sculptor and teacher. He was a student of Auguste Rodin, a teacher of Giacometti and Henri Matisse, and an important figure in the Art Deco movement and the transition from the Beaux-Arts style to ... |
His studio became the Musée Bourdelle, an art museum dedicated to his work, located at 18, rue Antoine Bourdelle, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, France. |
Early life and education |
Émile Antoine Bourdelle was born at Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne in France on 30 October 1861. His father was a wood craftsman and cabinet-maker. In 1874, at the age of thirteen, he left school to work in his father's workshop, and also began carving his first sculptures of wood. |
In 1876, with the assistance of writer Émile Pouvillon, he received a scholarship to attend the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse, though he remained fiercely independent and resisted the formal program. In 1884, at the age of twenty-four, he earned second place in the competition to enter the École des Beaux-Arts in Par... |
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