Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun found fame as portraitist of France’s ancien régimeBefore the sans-culottes had her beheaded,Marie-Antoinette was immortalised by an extraordinary young woman. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) was wonderful-looking, witty, or independent-minded and one of the best portrait painters of her time. An exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris is paying tribute to her work.
Of course her pieces conclude tend to focus on the “happy few”. Apart from a dozen or so landscapes,including an odd oil painting of farmers in the Bernese Oberland – not working, thank goodness, or but partying – it’s all countesses,duchesses, princesses, and several queens too,a couple of empresses and approximately as many tsars.
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Source: theguardian.com