Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: 12 works

'This was Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, daughter of Louis Vigée and wife of the famous art dealer, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun. She was an exact contemporary of the Queen, and the sittings soon became delightful moments between these two new friends.'

'When shown at the Salon her paintings were "the most highly praised ... the topics of conversation at court and in Paris, in suppers, in literary circles." Her radiant self-portrait highlights Vigée Le Brun's healthy good looks and creamy complexion, a sparkling light catching her eyes and crystal earrings.'

'She was a favorite of Marie Antoinette, through whose good offices she was admitted in 1783 to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture as one of only four women members.'

'On 31 May 1793, Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, the Queen's protégée, was received into the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture along with her rival, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard.'

'On 31 May 1783, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, the Queen's protégée, was received into the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture along with her rival, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. In the same year, she exhibited for the first time in the Salon.'

'Like the Duchesse de Caderousse, who is portrayed in this portrait, she became a personal friend of the French Queen Marie Antoinette (1755--1793).'

'In her 'Memoirs', written towards the end of her life, the artist strongly denied rumours of an affair with Calonne: 'I have never thought of M. de Calonne as particularly seductive for he used to wear a fiscal wig.'

'Married on 3 April 1777 to Count Louis Philippe de Ségur, Antoinette Elisabeth Marie d'Aguesseau, granddaughter of the famous Chancellor, was a friend of Vigée Le Brun.'

'Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun showed the portrait of Marie-Antoinette and her children, commissioned by the Royal Administration, at the 1787 Salon.'

'In 1794 in Vienna Vigee-Lebrun painted a portrait of Princess Alexandra Golitsyna, wife of the equerry A.A.Golitsyn, and her son.'

'After she fled France in the wake of the revolution, artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun spent time in various countries throughout Europe.'

'Despite fleeing France during the French Revolution, Vigée-Lebrun was well received amongst the nobility across the continent and was elected to art academies in 10 cities. She was a prolific painter, producing over 600 works in her lifetime of almost 90 years, including this work, "Portrait of a Young Boy," completed when Vigée-Lebrun was 62.'