Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
| Élisabeth Louise Vigée LeBrun | |
|---|---|
Self-portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782
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| Born |
Marie Élisabeth Louise Vigée 16 April 1755 Paris, France |
| Died | 30 March 1842 (aged 86) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Rococo, Neoclassicism |
 No. 228: Katherine Baetjer: "Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France.", Modern Arts Notes Podcast
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Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (Marie Élisabeth Louise; 16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842), also known as Madame Lebrun, was a prominent French painter.
Her artistic style is generally considered part of the aftermath of Rococo, while she often adopts a neoclassical style. Vigée Le Brun cannot be considered a pure Rococo or Neoclassical painter. Her subject matter and color palette can be classified as Rococo, however, her style is aligned with the emergence of Neoclassicism. Vigée Le Brun created a name for herself in Ancien Régime society by serving as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette.
Vigée Le Brun left a legacy of 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. In addition to private collections, her works may be found at major museums, such as the Hermitage Museum, London's National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and many other collections in continental Europe and the United States.
Born in Paris on 16 April 1755, Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée was the daughter of a portraitist and fan painter, Louis Vigée, from whom she received her first instruction. Her mother, Jeanne (née Maissin), was a hairdresser. She was sent to live with relatives in Épernon until the age of 6, when she entered a convent, where she remained for five years. Her father died when she was 12 years old. In 1768, her mother married a wealthy jeweler, Jacques-François Le Sèvre, and shortly after, the family moved to the Rue Saint-Honoré, close to the Palais Royal. She was later patronized by the wealthy heiress Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, wife of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. During this period Louise Élisabeth benefited from the advice of Gabriel François Doyen, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Joseph Vernet, and other masters of the period.
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