I will devote no further attention to her husband (then ex-husband) than to say he had a fabulous art collection, which Le Brun enjoyed thoroughly. Le Brun estimated that she had earned over 1 million francs that had been squandered by him. She left France practically penniless after her gambling husband spent all her money. This could not be more true in the painting of Marie Antoinette with her three children and an empty basinet - she lost her baby girl during the painting and Le Brun decided to include the basinet.Īfter the arrest of the royal family during the French Revolution, Le Brun fled France with Julie. In fact, many of her works, particularly the self-portraits and paintings of Marie Antoinette with her children effuse motherly tenderness. She deeply loved her daughter Julie, a fact that resonates in her self-portraits with Julie as a child. In fact, she had beautiful family relationships throughout her life. While Le Brun’s father died when she was just 12 years old, she had a good childhood and lovely relationship with her parents and her brother. She created approximately 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. By the end of her career, she had painted over thirty paintings of Marie Antoinette and painted royalty and nobility across Europe. In fact, she opened her first portrait studio at just 15 years old to support her widowed mother.
Le Brun started her career as a portrait painter, which allowed her to both access new social circles and earn money. I love this image - two young women, chatting and nonchalantly singing as if Le Brun was not shattering glass ceilings and dominating the art world. When the Queen learned that Le Brun could sing well, the two used to pass the long hours of portrait painting singing together.
Le Brun was the preferred court painter of Marie Antoinette, often painting the Queen with her children because she was known to capture the likeness of children well. I want to start this discussion of Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun with a short but sweet anecdote.
0 kommentar(er)
