Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun: Self portrait
Discover the amazing life story of this 18th-century French artist
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782) by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le BrunThe National Gallery, London
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842)
Amongst the most renowned portrait artists of the 18th century, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is one of only a small number of female artists whose work is represented in the National Gallery's Collection.
Learning her trade
As a young girl growing up in Paris, Vigée Le Brun did not have access to a formal artistic apprenticeship. Except for the training she received in childhood from her father – the artist Louis Vigée who died when his daughter was aged only 12 – she was largely self-taught.
By the age of 15, Vigée Le Brun was already painting the French aristocracy. At this time professional artists were required to register as a member of a guild or academy – of which Vigée Le Brun was neither.
Over the next few years, her work began to receive a great deal of attention – so much so, that her painting materials were seized by authorities when she was just 19-years-old.
To retrieve the tools of her trade, she swiftly joined the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1774, formalising her status as a professional artist.
Patronage of a Queen
By the end of her teenage years, Vigée Le Brun had established herself as an artist and her work had even caught the eye of French royalty.
She quickly became a favourite painter of Queen Marie-Antoinette (shown here), painting over 30 portraits of the queen and the royal family.
The Académie Royale
Having previously been rejected by the Académie Royale in France, Vigée Le Brun was finally admitted in 1783 as a result of her new royal patronage. She was one of only four women artists admitted to the Academie at this time.
LIFE Photo Collection
Revolution in France
In 1789, Revolution broke out in France. With the fall of the monarchy and the beginning of a tumultuous period of major political and social change, Vigée Le Brun's connections with royalty and France’s nobility placed her in immediate danger.
Fearing for her life the artist was forced to flee France with her daughter in 1789.
Map of Europe in 1789 (1812) by Conrad Malte-Brun (1775-1826) and Pierre Lapie (1779-1850)École Polytechnique
Painting in Exile
During the 12 years she spent in exile, Vigée Le Brun first sought refuge in Italy and later travelled across Europe to Austria, Russia and Germany. Her reputation preceded her, and Vigée Le Brun continued to gain commissions from European nobility and royalty during this time.
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782) by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le BrunThe National Gallery, London
Vigée Le Brun at the National Gallery
One of two works by Vigée Le Brun housed at the National Gallery, 'Self Portrait in a Straw Hat', tells us a lot about how this artist may have wanted to represent herself.
This work was actually painted as a copy of another self-portrait which Vigée Le Brun had exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1782 (now in the Rothschild Collection). Much like some of her other works, the picture generated as much scandal as it did praise.
In her memoirs, Vigée Le Brun claims that her self-portrait played a significant role in advancing her reputation. A bold exercise in self-promotion, every detail of this portrait has been meticulously considered...
The artist depicts herself in a rose-pink satin dress, with a sash tied loosely at her waist. Her clothes are deliberately informal, a style which was beginning to be adopted by Marie Antoinette at Versailles during the 1780s.
This style rejected the strict formality of court fashion.
Women sitting for formal portraits at this time would have been expected to wear more structured clothes and to wear wigs. Vigée Le Brun, however, chooses to paint her natural hair.
The accessories which Vigée Le Brun typically included in her portraits of women are replaced by the tools of her trade. If we look closely enough, we can see that the brushes she wields are coated in paint from her palette, almost as if we have interrupted her at work.
Referencing Rubens
The pose in Vigée Le Brun's self-portrait deliberately mimics the pose featured in a famous painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) also in the National Gallery's collection, 'Portrait of Susannah Lunden'.
This painting is also known as 'Le Chapeau de Paille' (The Straw Hat). However, despite its popular name, Rubens’s portrait does not actually depict a straw hat at all.
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782) by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le BrunThe National Gallery, London
In her own response to Rubens's 'Portrait of Susannah Lunden', Vigée Le Brun playfully corrects this, ensuring that she depicts herself adorning the correct item of clothing to match the title of her self-portrait.
A Lasting Legacy
By associating herself directly with this great artist and his work, Vigée Le Brun boldly and unapologetically asserts that she is both an elegant lady of society, as well as an accomplished, renowned professional female artist in her own right.
