Historical Figures Codexery

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Portraitist to Marie Antoinette and master of Rococo-Neoclassical style.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun · via Wikipedia: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun · Public domain

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was a French painter who specialized in portrait painting during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.[1] Her paintings are owned by major museums including the Louvre, Hermitage Museum, National Gallery in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[2]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Élisabeth Louise Vigée
Born
16 April 1755
Birthplace
Paris, Kingdom of France
Died
30 March 1842
Movement
High Rococo; Neoclassicism
Mother
Jeanne Maissin
Father
Louis Vigée
Children
2, including Julie

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Born in Paris on 16 April 1755, she was the daughter of a portraitist father and a hairdresser mother.[3] She married the art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, who provided her with important contacts and commissions.[4] Vigée Le Brun served as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette and painted more than 30 portraits of the Queen and her family.[5][6] She was received as a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 31 May 1783.[7]

Following the arrest of the royal family in October 1789, she fled Paris and did not return until 1802.[4] Between 1835 and 1837, she published her memoirs in three volumes.[8] When she was 12, her father died due to infections that developed after he underwent several surgical procedures.[9] While still in her early teens, she began earning money as a professional portrait painter.[10]

On 12 February 1780, she delivered a daughter, Jeanne Lucie Louise, who was nicknamed Julie.[11]

What the cited sources add

The National Gallery account notes that her Self Portrait in a Straw Hat was a signed copy of a very popular self portrait she painted in 1782.[4] According to the National Gallery, her husband played a significant role in her early career by providing her with important contacts and commissions.[4] The National Gallery account also explains that in the years preceding the French Revolution, she enjoyed great success at the Versailles court.[4]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun", Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux—Grand Palais, 2015 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "50 Women Artists You Should Know", Prestel, 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gaze, "Concise Dictionary of Women Artists", Taylor & Francis, 2001, p. 678; "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun", Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux—Grand Palais, 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. "Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat", National Gallery. facts only, no text reused. nationalgallery.org.uk
  5. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "National Museum of Women in the Arts"; Baillio, "Marie-Antoinette and her children, by Mme Vigée Le Brun", L'Oeil, p. 90 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nicholson, "Vigée Le Brun, Elisabeth-Louise", Grove Art Online – Oxford Art Online; Nicholson, "Vigée Le Brun, Elisabeth-Louise", Grove Art Online – Oxford Art Online (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fidière, "Les Femmes artistes à l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture", Charavay Frères, 1885; Fidière, "Les Femmes artistes à l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture", Charavay Frères, 1885; Auricchio, "Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution", J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009; Sheriff, "The Exceptional Woman: Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and the Cultural Politics of Art", University of Chicago, 1996; Sheriff, "The Exceptional Woman: Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and the Cultural Politics of Art", University of Chic en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Memoirs of Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun", Camden Press, 1989 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Goodden, "The Sweetness of Life: A Biography of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun", André Deutsch Limited, 1997 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nicholson, "Vigée Le Brun, Elisabeth-Louise", Grove Art Online – Oxford Art Online (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Memoirs of Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun", Camden Press, 1989; "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun", Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux—Grand Palais, 2015 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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