Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, also known as Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun or simply Madame Le Brun, was a French painter who mostly specialized in portrait painting, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Paintings by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Marie Antoinette and Her Children (1787)
Marie Antoinette and Her Children, also known as Marie Antoinette of Lorraine-Habsburg, Queen of France, and Her Children is an oil painting by the French artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, painted in 1787, and currently displayed at the Palace of Versailles. Its dimensions are 275 by 216.5 cm (108.3 by 85.2 in).
In July 1785, Marie Antoinette's reputation was tarnished by the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Despite her lack of personal involvement in the affair, public opinion turned against her. In an effort to improve public perception of the queen, later that year, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was commissioned by Louis XVI to paint an official portrait depicting Marie Antoinette sympathetically. The focus was to be on Marie Antoinette as a queen and, more importantly, a mother; as such, the painting shows her surrounded by her children and wearing little jewellery. To further engage the public's sympathy, Vigée Le Brun left an empty cradle in the place of the queen's youngest child, Sophie-Hélène-Béatrix, who died shortly before the painting was completed.
Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (1756)
Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (French: Autoportrait au chapeau de paille, Dutch: Zelfportret met strohoed) is a self-portrait by the French painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, painted after 1782, in oil on linen, measuring 97.8 by 70.5 centimetres. It has belonged to the collection of the National Gallery, in London, since 1897.
In her memories Vigée Le Brun stated that the painter Claude Joseph Vernet advised her to study the Flemish masters. In 1782 she went to Brussels, Amsterdam and Antwerp with her husband, and saw Peter Paul Rubens' portrait of Portrait of Susanna Lunden (aka. Susanna Fourment with a Straw Hat)(circa 1622–1625). (See Gallery below.) This painting deeply impressed her.
Self-Portrait with Julie (Self-Portrait à la Grecque) (1789)
Self-Portrait with Julie (Self-Portrait à la Grecque) is an oil-on-wood painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, created in 1789 at the height of the French Revolution, which depicts the artist in a tender embrace with her daughter, Julie. The painting reimagines the artist's 1787 Self-Portrait with Julie (Maternal Tenderness), clothing the figures instead in classical attire, aligning with the rise of Neoclassicism. The painting highlights Vigée Le Brun's technical skill, as well as her artistic identity and independence, especially at a time when art was a male-dominated field. The work is currently in the collection of the Louvre.
Unlike her previous self-portraits where she dons fashionable yet modest attire, here Vigée Le Brun is depicted in a loosely draped, classical style garment. The white cloth, evocative of ancient Greek or Roman dress, is wrapped over one shoulder and secured with a red scarf tied under her bust, while green silk is draped across her legs and her unpowdered hair is adorned with a red ribbon. The decision to dress this way carries layered meaning. Vigée Le Brun’s attire echoes the classical aesthetic that was increasingly popular during the late 18th century, aligning her image with timeless ideals of beauty and virtue. This was not merely a demonstration of her exceptional skill in rendering fabric but a deliberate move to elevate her artistic identity. By connecting herself to classical antiquity, Vigée Le Brun claims a space in the male-dominated tradition of "high art," which was often associated with history painting and classical themes.
Marie Antoinette with a Rose (1783)
Marie Antoinette with a Rose, also known as Marie-Antoinette with the Rose (French: Marie-Antoinette dit « à la Rose »), is an oil painting by the French artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. It was painted in 1783, and is in the collection of the Palace of Versailles. As of November 2022, it is hanging in the ante-dining room of the Petit Trianon.
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, the court painter of Queen Marie Antoinette of France, painted Marie Antoinette with a Rose in 1783, six years prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution and ten years prior to the eventual beheading of Louis XVI and the queen. Vigée Le Brun was enrolled at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture on 31 May 1783 and in the same year she was commissioned by Marie Antoinette to present a portrait of herself for the upcoming Salon. She portrayed the queen wearing a dress that looked like a chemise.
Portrait of Princess Maria Christina (1790)
Portrait of Princess Maria Christina is an oil-on-canvas painting executed c. 1790 by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Vigée Le Brun had taken refuge in Naples after fleeing Paris in 1789 during the French Revolution. The portrait is now in the National Museum of Capodimonte, in Naples.
The painting was commissioned by Maria Christina's parents Maria Carolina of Austria and Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, who decided to entrust the artist, who had fled to Naples, after the French Revolution, with the portraits of their four children.
Self-Portrait Painting Marie Antoinette (1790)
Self-Portrait Painting Marie Antoinette is an oil-on-canvas painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun from 1790. It is held in the collection of the Uffizi in Florence. The painting shows Le Brun in a black silk robe with a red sash, pausing mid-brushstroke before an outlined image. Le Brun painted the work in Rome after fleeing France to escape the French Revolution in 1789. She conceived the work as a demonstration of her support for the French Queen. She intended to give the work to the Grand Duke of Tuscany for the gallery that he maintained of artists' self-portraits.
After fleeing Paris, Le Brun arrived in Italy in November 1789. She visited the Galleria degli Uffizi and was captivated by the collection of self-portraits set up by Prince Leopoldo de’ Medici. In particular, she was inspired by a self-portrait by Angelica Kauffman, whose talent she greatly admired. Le Brun also related to Kauffman as they were both successful young prodigies and married libertines who financially ruined them.
Madame Grand (Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun) (1783)
Catherine Noël de Talleyrand-Périgord (née Worlée; 21 November 1761 – 10 December 1835) was a French courtesan and noblewoman. Born in India as the daughter of a French Indies Company official, she married George Grand, a clerk of the British East India Company. She had a liaison with Bengal councillor Philip Francis in Calcutta.
In 1782, she relocated to Paris, where she was known as Madame Grand and became a popular courtesan having relationships with several powerful men. She became the mistress and later the wife of French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the first Prime Minister of France. Catherine was known for her exceptional beauty, which was captured in her 1783 portrait by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. She was Princess of Benevent by marriage from 1806 until her death.
Peace Bringing Back Abundance (1780)
Peace Bringing Back Abundance was painted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1780 and is now part of the collection of the Louvre, in Paris. The Rococo painting is an allegory of Peace and Abundance, which Le Brun submitted as her reception piece for admission into the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1783. The work was originally received with mixed reviews, with some art critics commending Le Brun for her talent while others rebuked her for the subject choice and questioned her abilities. At the time it was submitted, it was seen as a commentary on the reign of Louis XVI and the signing of a treaty formally ending France's involvement in the American Revolution.
The two central figures in the artwork are allegories of Peace and Abundance. Peace appears on the right side of the composition and Abundance on the left. Abundance is partially nude, which indicates her status as an allegorical figure. The art historian Mary Sheriff notes that it was a common practice in the eighteenth century for artists to use the idealized female nude to signify that the figure represents an abstract idea rather than a real person.
Comtesse de la Châtre (1789)
Comtesse de la Châtre (English: Countess de la Châtre) is an oil on canvas painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, from 1789. It is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
The portrait depicts the Comtesse de la Châtre, wife of the Comte de la Châtre and future wife of François Arnail de Jaucourt. She had a penchant for wearing white muslin dresses, both for daily purposes and for portraits.
Portrait of Countess Yekaterina Skavronskaya (1790)
Portrait of Countess Catherine Skavronskaya is a 1790 oil-on-canvas portrait by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, now in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris. It was produced during her stay in Naples for its subject Yekatarina Skavronskaya's husband, Count Pavel Martinovich Skavronsky, Russia's Minister Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Naples. The composition was very successful and at least two contemporary copies are in Russian collections.
Vigée-Lebrun described the sitter as "sweet and beautiful like an angel.(...) She did nothing all day, she had no education and her conversation was mostly empty. But despite all this, she had an invincible charm, thanks to her pretty face and angelic softness."
Self-Portrait with Julie (Maternal Tenderness) (1786)
Self-Portrait with Julie (Maternal Tenderness) is a 1787 painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun showing the artist with her daughter. It is now in the collection of the Louvre.
The painting depicts Le Brun with her daughter Julie in her lap, both turned toward the viewer. The figures are positioned in the immediate foreground. The artist grips her daughter tightly in her hands, which are prominently visible, placing an emphasis on the act of embrace.
Portrait of Countess Yekaterina von Engelhardt (1796)
Portrait of Countess Yekaterina von Engelhardt is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1796 by the French painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Its subject, Yekaterina von Engelhardt, was a Russian noblewoman and lady in waiting. The portrait was produced in Saint Petersburg and now is held in the Louvre, in Paris, which acquired it in 1966. It was exhibited in Saint Petersburg in 1905 as part of the exhibition Russian Portraits of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
An earlier portrait of the same subject was produced by the artist in Naples in 1790 and is now in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris.