Blog Post #11 Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun Blog

After learning so much about male artists, as expected, I was drawn to Elizabeth (1755 – 1842) and was also intrigued by her artistic style that blended together a Rococo colour palette and imagery together with a Neoclassical style. Her path into the fine arts started in her childhood where she was able to hone her craft with the help of her artistic father until his untimely death when she was 12. Thereafter, she gained experience, doing studies of master painters’ works and practicing on any medium and surface she could. She was also known as the portrait painter of Marie Antoinette and as such, was fully immersed in the French aristocratic culture which was very rare for a female artists of that time.

I was particularly interested in how a woman would portray her own gender due to how frequently she painted women and learned that her elegant portrayals which nonetheless used bright colors and easygoing expressions made her popular with royalty. In contrast to other painters of the French court who portray her subjects very lavishly and exaggerated, she was noted by the queen as portraying her subjects with a natural, relaxed charm. Additionally, her artworks greatly demonstrated the changing fashions of the day. Until her death, it is said she produced more than 600 paintings which showed her competence as both a painter, independent working woman and a social butterfly.