Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun: A Great Woman Artist

Born in Paris in 1755, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun showed artistic talent from an early age, at which she began to paint portraits of the French aristocracy.

In 1776 she marries Jean-Baptiste Le Brun, a renowned artist and art dealer. Her association with him impedes her from entering the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. She is finally admitted in 1783 at the age of 28 with the help of Marie Antoinette, whose first portrait she had done in Versailles in 1779.

With this, she became one of four women artists enrolled in the Academy. During these years, she painted members of the royal court like the Duchese de Polignac and Madame du Barry. She became Marie Antoinette’s official portraitist, and was admired for her depiction of the queen as a devout and loving mother.

Le Brun was forced to flee France in 1789 in the wake of the French Revolution due to her association to the Royal Family. She lived in Italy until she was able to return to France where she died in Paris in 1842.

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette and her children

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