{"id":111,"date":"2019-10-05T01:43:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T01:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/kathrinteh\/?p=111"},"modified":"2019-10-05T01:43:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T01:43:03","slug":"elisabeth-vigee-le-brun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/kathrinteh\/2019\/10\/05\/elisabeth-vigee-le-brun\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9lisabeth Vig\u00e9e Le Brun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Considered part of the late rococo period, \u00c9lisabeth Vig\u00e9e Le Brun was a prominent French portraitist, with hints of neoclassicism permeating her paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u00c9lisabeth displayed her creativity and talent from a young age, drawing in notebooks and even the walls of her school. Her father, Louis Vig\u00e9e, acted as her teacher in all things art – especially pastels – and further cultivated her artistic aspirations. However, after the tragic premature death of her father, \u00c9lisabeth decided to abandon her passion for art at the age of 12. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, a family friend and fellow painter, Gabriel-Fran\u00e7ois Doyen, convinced her to pursue art once again. With her stunning talent, she quickly rose through the ranks of the French art world, before becoming the official portraitist for Marie Antoinette; in six years, 30 portraits were painted. \u00c9lisabeth was even accepted into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, despite her being a woman and<\/em> her low social status, adopted from her art dealer husband. Eventually \u00c9lisabeth was forced to flee the country with her daughter due to various slanderous publications from people who didn’t believe a woman could paint so well and thought she had another artist assisting her. Despite leaving her husband and home, \u00c9lisabeth continued working and building her clientele outside of France. In 1802, she finally returned to Paris, becoming friends with Jos\u00e9phine Bonaparte and further spreading her work across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find her work to be oddly comforting, with the abundance of curves and softness of lines – giving figures an ethereal disposition. Her perseverance is also to be admired; despite all the hardships, she continued to do what she loved and didn’t let anything – whether gender or social class related – get in her way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n