Daring: The Life and Art of Elisabeth Vig e Le Brun

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