Élisabeth Vigee Le Brun
In 1777, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria wrote to her daughter Marie Antoinette (yes, this Marie Antoinette) asking for a portrait. A year later, the Queen finally found the artist who could paint the portrait for which she had been so long waited: Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, daughter of Louis Vigée and wife of the famous art dealer, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun. She was an exact contemporary of the Queen, and the sittings soon became delightful moments between these two new friends. The artist painted more than 30 portraits of Marie Antoinette and her family, leading to the common perception that she was her official portraitist—something quite unique in the epoch.
Vigée Le Brun remembered that the queen "walked better than any other woman in France, holding her head very high with a majesty that singled her out in the midst of the entire court."
March is Women's History Month, and we used this cool occasion to present this portrait of a very important woman, created by a very important woman artist. Enjoy!
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