Existing comment:
Elisabeth-Louise Bigee-Lebrun
Portrait of the Comte de Vaudreuil, 1784
The Comte de Vaudreuil was a wealthy French aristocrat who owned plantations in the Caribbean. He was influential at the court of King Louis XVI, securing positions for his family and friends, among whom was the artist Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun. Although the Comte de Vaudreuil was a worldly and ambitious man, Vigee-Lebrun described him in her memoirs as natural, unaffected, and immune to the pretentious artificiality of the court. A noted art collector, he once also owned VMFA's The Finding of the Laocoon by Hubert Robert.
Vigee-Lebrun, daughter of a Parisian pastelist, was a successful portrait painter from the age of 15. In 1779, she was commissioned to paint Marie Antoinette's portrait; she quickly became the Queen's favorite artist. Like the Comte de Vaudreuil, Vigee-Lebrun fled France at the beginning of the Revolution, but was later invited to return, which she did briefly in 1802 and permanently in 1810. |