Painting: 'Portrait of the Artist' in Ebony Frame

Details

Madame Le Brun, in the course of a long life devoted to art, achieved an international reputation which has lasted down to the present day. She was born in Paris, her father being an obscure painter named Vigee, and at the age of twenty-one she married J. B. P. Le Brun, a picture dealer and grand-nephew of Charles Le Brun, the French historical painter.

As her portraits of herself show, she was possessed of great personal beauty. This, allied to her talent and great charm of manner, rapidly made her the fashion in Paris. She was only twenty-four when she first painted Marie Antoinette, and so successfully did she execute the commission that a lasting friendship with the ill-fated Queen was formed. She subsequently painted numerous members of the Royal Family and of the Court. After much opposition on account of her sex, she was elected to membership in the Academy.

At the outbreak of the French Revolution she went to Italy, making a triumphal tour of Europe on the way, and was honored by various academies of painting which admitted her to membership in honor of her achievements. She visited London in 1802, and painted many portraits, including those of the Prince of Wales and Lord Byron. In 1805 she returned to Paris, where her salon was a center of attraction to the cultured and refined men and women of the day until her death in 1842.

She was prodigiously industrious, in which respect she rivaled Sir Joshua Reynolds. Her “Souvenirs,” published in 1837, were illustrated with no fewer than 662 portraits and 200 landscapes, which display the correctness of her drawing, the delicate and pleasing coloring, and the charm which make her work so delightful and so popular wherever her paintings are known.