An Appreciation:
Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun

 Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun was one of the most successful portrait painters of the late 18th and early 19th century. Her road to success was not easy as she had to navigate through one of the most tumultuous periods of European history.

Elisabeth was born on April 16, 1755 in Paris. Her mother was a hairdresser and her father a portraitist. As a young girl, Elisabeth liked drawing and spent much time in her father's studio.

At age five, as was customary for girls of her class, Elisabeth was enrolled in a convent school. Once again, she displayed a talent for drawing.

When she returned to her parents' home in 1767, her father allowed her to attend the art classes he gave in his studio. In addition, she benefitted from advice given her by other artists who visited her father's studio.

Her father, however, died when Elisabeth was 12. This left the family in financial difficulty and so within a year, her mother married a wealthy jeweler. However, both Elisabeth and her younger brother Etienne, disiked their miserly and disagreeable step-father.

In order to make money, Elisabeth began to do portraits professionally. At the same time, she continued her art studies, taking classes, and chaperoned by her mother, visiting royal and private art collections where she would make copies of works by the Old Masters.

Elisabeth's talent was soon recognized and demand for her portraits grew. In addition, her works were exhibited publicly. By 1770, she was an established artist, although only a teenager.

Her success brought Elisabeth to the attention of the authorities and in 1774, her studio was seized for practicing art without a license (i.e. not paying dues to a guild). Therefore, she immediately applied for membership in the Academie de Saint Luc, the second most prestigious art association in France. This association was more sympathetic to women artists than its rival the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and Elisabeth was admitted in October 1774.

In 1775, Elisabeth's step-father moved the family into an apartment building owned by Jean Baptiste Pierre Le Brun. A painter and art dealer, Le Brun took an immediate interest in the young artist and allowed her to copy works in his collection. They were married the following year. They would have one child, a daughter known as Julie.

The Le Bruns held salons in their Paris townhouse that attracted both artists and aristocrats. These gathering became quite fashionable and led to more commissions for portraits including for members of the royal family.

In 1778, Elisabeth painted her first portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette. She would go on to paint more than 30 pictures of the Queen and her children. Although of different social rank, the Queen and Elisabeth developed a rapport. The artist was able to capture the more human side of her subjects and so was able to present Marie Antoinette as a woman and mother rather than in the stiff formal manner of other court painters.

Elisabeth's association with the Queen benefitted the artist at first. Not only did more commissions emerge but the Queen was able to persuade the King to order the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture to accord Elisabeth membership. The Academie objected on two grounds. First, Elisabeth was a woman and very few women artists were accorded membership. Second, Elisabeth's husband was as art dealer, which the Academie regarded as being a trade and membership was not accorded to people related to tradesmen. Nonetheless, the Academie complied and Elisabeth became a member in 1783.

But times were changing in France. Revolutionary fervor was growing and the royal family was subject to increasingly bitter attacks. Those associated with the royal family were also targets and Elisabeth found herself the subject of scandalous pamphlets attacking her morals. Le Brun published a defense of his wife but her personal reputation was destroyed.

In October 1789, a mob invaded the palace at Versailles and forced the King and Queen to accompany them to Paris. The Le Bruns' townhouse had earlier been attacked by the mob and so Elisabeth decided it was best to leave France until order was restored. Therefore, Elisabeth, Julie and a governess boarded a public coach and left for Italy.

Elisabeth took only enough money to pay for their traveling expenses. Therefore, when it became clear that order in France was not going to be restored soon, Elisabeth had to start over as an artist in Italy. Fortunately, her reputation preceded her and she received commissions as she moved from city to city in Italy. In Naples, the Queen was Marie Antoinette's sister and Elisabeth painted a number of portraits of the royal family. She also met Emma Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador and future love of Admiral Horatio Nelson. A renowned beauty, Lady Hamilton posed for several allegorical history pictures including Elisabeth's favorite, “The Sybil.”

Meanwhile, in France, the revolutionary government placed both Le Brun and her brother Etienne in prison for their association with Elisabeth. They were eventually released but the government put Elisabeth's name on the list of counter-revolutionary emigres who had fled the country. This meant that she was legally dead and all of her property was forfeit to the state. Le Brun made several attempts to have his wife's name removed from the list including presenting a petition signed by 255 artists but to no avail. To prevent the authorities from seizing his property and concerned for his won safety, Le Brun divorced Elisabeth.

Elisabeth had thought of returning to France but when it became obvious that it would not be safe to do so, she traveled instead to Austria. Elisabeth had some contacts there inasmuch as Marie Antoinette had been the daughter of the Emperor of Austria. Once again, Elisabeth established a successful practice as members of the royal family, aristocrats and the wealthy commissioned portraits.

Catherine the Great of Russia was a great admirer of the Pre-revolutionary French Court. Therefore, Elisabeth was persuaded to base herself in Russia. Once again, she found success, painting portraits of members of the Russian court. As in many of the places she stayed, Elisabeth's talent was also recognized by fellow artists and she was received as a member of the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg.

Julie, now a young woman, fell in love with Gaétan Bernard Nigris, secretary to the Director of the Imperial Theater. Elisabeth did not approve but the couple married anyway. This led to some 20 years of estrangement between the previously close mother and daughter. It only ended shortly before Julie's death, when she was living in Paris abandoned by Nigris and impoverished.

In 1800, the Napoleonic government, after a campaign by Le Brun and other members of Elisabeth's family, removed Elisabeth's name from the list of counter-revolutionary emigrees. Now able to return to France, in 1801, Elisabeth began a slow trek home, which included an extended and successful stay in Berlin.

Returning to France in 1802, Elisabeth moved into the Le Brun townhouse despite the divorce. She was once again able to start a successful practice. However, she did not develop a close relationship with the new imperial family like the one she had with the Bonbons. The only portrait she did of the Bonapartes was of Napoleon's sister Caroline Murat, who ironically was made queen of Naples after her brother conquered that country.

During the Peace of Amienes, which temporarily ended hostilities between England and France, Elisabeth moved to London. There, she was able to command considerably higher fees for a portrait than even the President of the Royal Academy Sir Joshua Reynolds thus earning the hatred of some British portrait painters. Her portraits included the Prince of Wales and Lord Byron.

Returning to France, Elisabeth continued to work. In Paris, Elisabeth's salons became a gathering place for those interested in the Romantic movement. She also purchased a large house in the village of Louveciennes, which became her country home. Ironically, after the fall of Napoleon in 1814, Prussian troops invaded her house.

Le Brun died in 1813, followed by Julie in 1819 and Etienne in 1820.

Although stripped of her membership in the Academie during the Revolution, Elisabeth continued to show her work at the Salon of the Academie until 1824. She also painted a picture for the collection of King Charles X in 1828.

In 1835, Elisabeth published the first of three volumes of her memoirs.

Elisabeth suffered a debilitating stroke in 1841. She died the next year.

Click here for more artist biographies

Art reviews and articles index

Above: Emma Lady Hamilton was the model for several of Vigee Le Brun's paintings including "Sibyl,"  said to have been the artist's favorite painting.

Vigee Le Brun painted numerous portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette.  The painting above was considered scandalous as it showed the Queen in an informal dress.  In the painting below, Vigee Le Brun considers the Queens maternal side.

---

Above:  Vigee Le Brun's brother Etienne, a future poet.

 Vigee Le Brun often turned to self-portraiture to consider various aspects of her personality.  In the above picture, she is with her daughter Julies while in the picture below, she presents herself working in a straw hat often said to be inspired by a painting by Peter Paul Rubens.

​Above: Self-portrait.

---

Artist appreciation - Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun