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Full Description
Supremely
talented and strategically charming, Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun (1755-1842)
overcame tragedy and broke gender barriers to reach the height of success as
a portrait painter, first in Paris, and then across Europe. After losing her
father at age twelve and facing financial insecurity, she fought to gain
access to artistic training and opportunity. She was pressured to marry at
age twenty, to an art dealer who both helped and harmed her career. Vigee Le
Brun deployed her intelligence and beauty to attract powerful clients, who
relied on her to style the personal identities they projected to the
world.
Vigee Le Brun's salons were the talk of Paris, and she became court painter
to Marie Antoinette. Then came the French Revolution, when marginalized
groups demanded change to centuries-old systems of oppression. Vigee Le Brun
was forced to reexamine her alliances and run for her life, taking her young
daughter but leaving her husband behind. Making her way through the
countrysides and capitals of Europe and Russia-including a stay at the
imperial court of Catherine the Great-the artist conquered fear and adversity
to refashion her life and her art.
Ages thirteen and up
