Magnet Vigée Le Brun - Self-portrait

This magnet is published on the occasion of the exhibition "Women painters, 1780 - 1830 The birth of a battle" at the musée du Luxembourg.

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842)
Self-portrait of the artist painting the portrait of Empress Elizaveta Alexeevna, 1800 - Oil on canvas - 78,5 x 68 cm St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

This work was painted in St Petersburg where Vigee Le Brun, a refugee from the French Revolution and famed for her portraits, was working at the imperial court. She created many portraits of members of the imperial family and Russian aristocrats. Here the artist showed herself painting a portrait of Empress Elizaveta Alexeevna, wife of Emperor Alexander I. The strictness of the Neoclassical style did not deprive the canvas of intimacy. Compositional clarity is softened by the lively pose and elegant gesture, and the slightly coquettish femininity.
Close