An exceptionnal women, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun was already a renowned portraitist for the nobility at the age of twenty. From 1777, she became the official painter of the queen Marie Antoinette. In 1789, she chose exile and travelled to Italy, Austria and Russia. Invited in major courts of Europe, she acquired an international reputation. Back in France in 1800, then staying in England and Switzerland, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun did not cease to paint until her death in 1845. Her work counts approximately 900 paintings, including more than 660 portraits.
This book presents 40 selected masterpieces from the 130 paintings exhibited at the Grand Palais, Paris, from September 2015, then at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
