Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun is noted as a very prominent woman/artist in the
World of the Eighteenth Century art. She is known for her work as a portrait
painter. Her most famous works are included in the series that she had painted
at age twenty-four of Queen Marie-Antoinette. Vigee-Le Brun was a woman of so
many talents. Before she died at eighty-seven years old, she was an accomplished
artist, exceptional musician, and a loving mother to her daughter Julie. Vigee-Le
Brun was an unusually unattractive woman. She was charming and self-confident
with an ability to present her sitters' personas most advantageously. Vigee-Le
Brun was very reputable because she managed to keep her head and professional
reputation in a time of political upheaval. (French Revolution). This allowed
her to gain fame in France, Italy, Austria, and Russia. Vigee-Le Brun was such
an endowed artist that by the age of fifteen she could have supported herself
and her family, if her funds weren't taken away from her by her stepfather and
unruly husband. Just nine years later she began her most famous portrait series
of Marie-Antoinette. This series included "Marie-Antoinette and her
children at Versailles -1788," (shown below) the last portrait of thirty
that Vigee-Le Brun painted of the doomed queen. This painting still hangs at
Versailles. Louis XVI said to Vigee-Le Brun, " I have no knowledge of
painting, but you make me fond of it." (Levey 280). Notice the painting
shown on the pervious page. Vigee-Le Brun was a painter of the Rococo period.
Rococo is best described as an eighteenth century art style that placed emphasis
on portraying the carefree life of the aristocracy rather than on grand heroes
or pious martyrs. Love and romance were considered to be better subjects for art
than historical or religious subjects. The style was characterized by a free,
graceful movement; a playful use of line; and delicate colors. This is
represented it the work "Marie-Antoinette and her children at Versailles
-1788." To describe the work in great detail you must first look at
Marie-Antoinette. Her complexion is very fair and she is portrayed as an
extremely feminine woman. Her femininity is also shown by her dress. The dress
is a rich, red color with a low neckline, and surrounded by lace and ribbons.
This could represent a "life-line" between Marie-Antoinette and the
youngest of her children because the baby boy is holding on to it for support.
All babies need to feel this closeness with their mothers. Vigee-Le Brun could
have used that to show Marie-Antoinette as a good motherly figure to the other
mothers whom would have seen this work. Another symbol of her motherliness is
shown because she is holding her children next to what could be the bed of one
of the children, most likely the baby's crib. The dress is harboring a skirt
that is more than enough trouble for Marie-Antoinette to handle in one day. This
gown is a representation of the aristocracy and of a woman's power. She is
wearing a large, matching hat with overbearing feathers. This is also a
representation of power. The hat is a frequent characteristic in the series of
Marie-Antoinette. Another characteristic of the series is shown by
Marie-Antoinette's legs and feet being rested upon a very decorated pillow. This
could show that she was of the aristocracy and her feet should be above the dirt
on the floor. Now we move on to the children in the painting. They are all
wearing fancy clothes, just as children of the aristocracy would. The oldest
child is looking up with a gaze in her eyes of admiration for her mother. She
looks as if she is being shown as a young Marie-Antoinette. The young girl's
dress is also like that of her mother's. It too, is a deep red color with a
small outline of lace and ribbon around the neck. The dress has an added bow
around the waist. This is done to show the dress as a dress of less maturity.
The daughter does look like a young version of her mother, yes; but she can not
be shown as overly mature because she is still a young lady. The bow simply down
plays the power because of the child-like characteristic. The baby boy in the
picture is, as noted in the first paragraph, holding onto his mother with an
urgency to fulfill the need of the mother's love and presence. The young boy,
the middle child, is standing next to the crib of the baby boy with his finger
pointing to the crib of his younger brother. The young boy has very nice
posture. His attire is also that of an aristocratic child. This is a symbol of
strength and masculinity. (At least enough for his age.) All of the children are
nicely dressed and they all have very detailed faces; each is showing a
different expression. (An expression that would relate to their ages.) They are
all very beautiful children. "[It is] difficult to convey an idea today of
the urbanity, the graceful ease, in a word the affability of manners which made
the charm of Parisian society forty years ago. The women reigned then: the
Revolution dethroned them." Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, 1835. The theme of
the work is to portray Marie-Antoinette through Vigee-Le Brun's portrait as
mother-like to the other mothers and to the public whom would view her pictures.
Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun's goal through "Marie-Antoinette and Her
Children" was to create an image of the Queen that would appeal to the
common folk. The composition of the portrait shows good relations between the
children and their mother. The Rococo movement that is in play through this work
has that palette of the typical Rococo painting. It demonstrates the soft colors
and a playful use of the line. It shows the delicacy between each object and
person in the entire work. Through the series of Marie-Antoinette's portraits,
Vigee-Le Brun had developed a relationship with the Queen. This, of course, had
its obvious advantages for Vigee-Le Brun. Through this relationship, Vigee-Le
Brun was granted an acceptance into the Royal Academy. This was a great
advantage for her because she was technically barred from the academy due to her
husband's profession. But, Vigee-Le Brun's relationship had made her presence
around the Queen in France too dangerous because of the Revolution. Due to this,
she and her nine year-old daughter made a dramatic escape from Paris. Her timing
was so close that the night that she left was the same night that
Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI were arrested. From this escape, she and her
daughter began twelve years of exile. Throughout these twelve years, she again
captivated the nobility's attention with her works. Her talent again gained her
admissions into several academies. One quote from a recent writer serves as
complete closing for Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun when her art is
characterized as "a conspicuous anachronism, typifying the final attempt by
Ancient Regime society to shut its eyes to unwelcomed realities, and to take
refuge in a world of make-believe and fancy dress." (Heller 60).
Bibliography
Fiero, Gloria. The Humanistic Tradition: Faith, Reason, and Power in the
Early Modern World. 3 rd ed. Vol. 4. New York: McGraw Hill, 1998. 143-6. Heller,
Nancy. Women Artists: An Illustrated History. New York: Abbeville Publishing
Group, 1991. 55, 58-66. Levey, Michael. Levey: Painting and Sculpture in France
1700-1789. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. 278-96. Eighteenth Century.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts. 24 Feb. 2000 (http://www.nmwa.org/index.htn).
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