18th century
19th century
A01=Jordana Pomeroy
Adelaide Labille Guiard
aristocrats
art history
Author_Jordana Pomeroy
Bastille
Category=YNA
Category=YNB
Category=YNMF
Catherine Great
Chevalier Saint Georges
eq_bestseller
eq_childrens
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_teenage-young-adult
female
French Revolution
gender roles
Habsburgs
high society
Jacques Louis David
Jean Baptiste Pierre
Joseph Bologne
Joseph Vernet
King Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
Maximilien Robspierre
Paris
pastels
portrait
Rococo
Royal Academy
royals
Saint Luc
salon
Versailles
woman artist
Product details
- ISBN 9781947440104
- Dimensions: 222 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 29 Jul 2025
- Publisher: Getty Trust Publications
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Supremely
talented and strategically charming, Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun (1755-1842)
overcame tragedy and broke gender barriers to reach the height of success as
a portrait painter, first in Paris, and then across Europe. After losing her
father at age twelve and facing financial insecurity, she fought to gain
access to artistic training and opportunity. She was pressured to marry at
age twenty, to an art dealer who both helped and harmed her career. Vigee Le
Brun deployed her intelligence and beauty to attract powerful clients, who
relied on her to style the personal identities they projected to the
world.
Vigee Le Brun's salons were the talk of Paris, and she became court painter to Marie Antoinette. Then came the French Revolution, when marginalized groups demanded change to centuries-old systems of oppression. Vigee Le Brun was forced to reexamine her alliances and run for her life, taking her young daughter but leaving her husband behind. Making her way through the countrysides and capitals of Europe and Russia-including a stay at the imperial court of Catherine the Great-the artist conquered fear and adversity to refashion her life and her art.
Ages thirteen and up
Vigee Le Brun's salons were the talk of Paris, and she became court painter to Marie Antoinette. Then came the French Revolution, when marginalized groups demanded change to centuries-old systems of oppression. Vigee Le Brun was forced to reexamine her alliances and run for her life, taking her young daughter but leaving her husband behind. Making her way through the countrysides and capitals of Europe and Russia-including a stay at the imperial court of Catherine the Great-the artist conquered fear and adversity to refashion her life and her art.
Ages thirteen and up
Jordana Pomeroy is director and CEO
of the Currier Museum of Art and former chief curator at the National Museum
of Women in the Arts.
