Élisabeth Louise Vigée: The Queen’s Portraitist

Being a woman pursuing art, I gain inspiration from individuals such as French artist Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. She was able to make a mark in the Rococo period with her portraits, specifically ones of women, and her use of bright colours and loose brushwork. Her father, Louis Vigée, worked with pastel art which naturally put her in an artistic environment to grow, painting on any surface that was available to her. He was also able to educate her on the basics of art before he passed away when she was 12. All her hard work and dedication granted her a membership in a masters guild of painters and sculptors which led to her being brought to Versailles in order to paint a portrait of Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1779. As time went by, she painted multiple portraits of the queen and ended up developing a friendship with her. Due to this relationship, she was permitted into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture which caused some controversy. Since she was a woman tied to the social status of her husband’s profession of an art dealer. This proved her to be a very powerful artist of her time.