Vigée Le Brun
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
1755-1842
Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun was born in Paris in 1755 and died in Louveciennes in 1842. She was the daughter of the pastel painter Louis Vigée. Her early training came from her father and his friend Greuze, as well as from Gabriel-François Doyen and Joseph Vernet. At fifteen, she was already known as a painter and at nineteen became a member of the Academy of St. Luke. In 1776, she married Pierre Le Brun, the well-known picture dealer. Summoned to Versailles to paint Marie-Antoinette in 1779, she soon became her friend and confidante and was awarded the title 'Painter to the Queen'. In 1783, Vigée-Le Brun, a prolific painter, was admitted to the Academie Royale and in a short time found herself the favorite portraitist to the aristocracy for her conventional yet fresh, flattering characterizations. At the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 she fled to Italy and for the next twelve years wandered from one European capital to another, distinguishing herself at the courts of Vienna, Prague, Dresden, and Berlin, where she was elected to the Academy. From 1795 to 1800 she lived at the Court of St. Petersburg. In 1802 she was granted permission to return to France, but, unable to adjust to the social upheaval of Napoleonic society, she left for England and then Switzerland, where she became a close friend of Mme. de Staël. She returned to France again in 1809 and established permanent residence at Louveciennes, where her Salon became a center for writers and artists. Her memoirs, published in 1835, provide fascinating insight into the social climate and the personalities of her illustrious sitters.
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