Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842), the foremost woman artist of her age

Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun exerted her considerable charm to become the friend, and then official portraitist, of Marie Antoinette. Though profitable, this role made her a public and controversial figure, and in 1789 it precipitated her exile. In a Europe torn by strife and revolution, she nevertheless managed to thrive as an independent, self-supporting artist, doggedly setting up studios in Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and London.

Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun was a singularly gifted and high-spirited woman during the revolutionary era, connected with such personalities of her age as Catherine the Great, Napoleon, and Benjamin Franklin. Long overlooked, Vigée Le Brun’s portraits now hang in the Louvre, as well as in all leading art museums of the world.