In honor of Woman's History Month, we continue with our spotlight on women artists in the Nelson-Atkins collection.
Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun was an accomplished painter in a time when the art world was still ruled by men. Her first instruction came from her father who was a portraitist and the artists that he knew. By the time she was a teenager, she was painting professionally. She married an artist and dealer and eventually became a personal friend of Marie Antoinette, painting her portrait on several occassions. Le Brun fled France during the French Revolution but was welcomed by the nobility of Italy, Austria and Russia.
The Nelson-Atkins has a very fine painting by Le Brun called Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse. In this painting, Le Brun has captured a noble woman in the guise of a country peasant. Painted just five years before the Revolution, this was a common attitude of the upper class to identify themselves with the "simple pleasures" of the peasant life.
Comments (3)
It was a man's world, certainly, but Madame Vigee-Lebrun was not the only woman painter in late 18th century France. Her contemporary, Adelaide Labille-Guiard, though less famous today, also enjoyed a highly successful career.
Speaking of Vigee-Lebrun's accomplishments, why not mention her memoirs? They were translated into English and are available online at [link removed].
They constitute a wonderful, lively eyewitness account of aristocratic life in pre-revolutionary France.
In these memoirs, Vigee-Lebrun often mentions Marie-Antoinette. The painter was grateful for the Queen's patronage, and felt a respectful admiration for her, but the enormous social difference separating the two women precluded any kind of "personal friendship" between them.
Posted by Catherine Delors | March 12, 2008 6:41 PM
Posted on March 12, 2008 18:41
Catherine,
Thank you for the information about Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun. I excluded the link to her memoirs because it didn't work. I would be very interested in posting a link if you have another option.
Posted by Jodi | March 13, 2008 1:19 PM
Posted on March 13, 2008 13:19
Hi Jodi,
This is the only link I have:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/lebrun/memoirs/memoirs.html
If it still doesn't work (it does from my computer, go figure...) you can try going to the UPenn Library site, and then do an advanced search under "memoirs" and "lebrun" and that should take you right to it.
A great read.
Posted by Catherine Delors | March 13, 2008 3:15 PM
Posted on March 13, 2008 15:15