Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

Based on a painting by MARIE LOUISE ELISABETH VIGÉE-LEBRUN (Paris, 1755 - 1842).
"Sons of Louis XVI", pps. 19th century.
Engraving on paper.
Publisher: Maurice Blot.
Moisture stains, wrinkles, folds, dirt.
Size: 53 x 38 cm (print); 65 x 50 cm (paper).
Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun was the most outstanding French painter of the 18th century. She was introduced to art by her father, a portrait painter, and completed her training with G. F. Doyen, J. B. Greuze and J. Vernet. As a teenager she was already painting portraits professionally, and in 1774 she became a member of the French Academy. Two years later she was called to court to portray Queen Marie Antoinette, and the model was so pleased that she commissioned further portraits of herself, as well as of the princes and numerous nobles. She travelled to England and Switzerland, portraying figures such as Lord Byron, and was made an honorary member of the Society for the Advancement of the Fine Arts in Geneva. Vigée-Lebrun is represented in the Louvre, the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas, the Metropolitan in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, among many other art centres around the world.