Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun

Key facts

Lived

1755–1842, French

Movements

• Neoclassicism
• Rococo

1. 1755Born on 16 April in Paris, the daughter of the portraitist and pastel painter Louis Vigee. Her father recognised her ability early and gave her access to his studio before she was eleven.
2. 1774Elected to the Academie de Saint-Luc at age 19 in Paris, establishing herself professionally as a portrait painter. By this time she was already receiving commissions from Parisian aristocrats.
3. 1778Painted her first official portrait of Marie Antoinette at Versailles at age 23. The queen was so pleased that Vigee Le Brun became her preferred painter, eventually producing around 30 portraits of her over the following years.
4. 1783Admitted to the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture at age 28 in Paris, through the direct intervention of the king and queen. Membership was normally barred to women connected with art dealers, and her husband was one.
5. 1789Fled Paris with her young daughter on the night of 6 October at age 34, just as the revolutionary mob marched on Versailles. This began an exile of over 12 years across Italy, Austria, Russia and Prussia.
6. 1795Arrived in St Petersburg at age 40, where she became a favourite portraitist of the Russian court. She spent six years in Russia, painting members of the imperial family and the highest-ranking aristocrats.
7. 1802Returned to France at age 47 under Napoleon's rule after her name was finally struck from the emigre list. She continued painting and eventually settled in Louveciennes, outside Paris.
8. 1842Died on 30 March in Paris at age 86. Over her career she produced some 660 portraits and 200 landscapes, and her three-volume memoirs, published in 1835-37, remain a valuable record of pre-revolutionary French society.

• How did elisabeth louise vigee le brun die?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun died in 1842 at the age of 87.
• How did elisabeth-louise vigee le brun die?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun died in 1842 at the age of 87.
• What is elisabeth louise vigee le brun known for?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun is known for being the portraitist most closely connected with Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France. She painted more than thirty portraits of the Queen.
• When was elisabeth louise vigee-le brun born?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun was born in 1755 in France. Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun died in 1842, aged 87.
• Where did elisabeth louise vigee le brun live?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun was born in Paris in 1755. She fled France during the Revolution and travelled across Europe for twelve years, but eventually returned to Paris, where she died in 1842.
• Who is elisabeth louise vigee le brun?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun was a portraitist closely associated with Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France. She painted over thirty portraits of the queen and was a successful artist before the queen's patronage.
• Elisabeth louise vigee le brun artwork?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun painted over thirty portraits of Marie Antoinette.
• Elisabeth louise vigee le brun self portrait?+

  Vigée-Lebrun painted a self-portrait showing herself holding paintbrushes and a palette. The painting depicts her working on one of the portraits that made her famous, and is brought to life by her radiant features and the red material around her waist.
• Elisabeth louise vigee le brun marie antoinette?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun painted Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, more than thirty times. She was the portraitist most closely connected with the Queen.
• Elisabeth louise vigee le brun on view?+

  Some portraits by Vigée-Lebrun are located in Versailles. These include portraits of Marie Antoinette's family, one of the queen completed in 1783, and one titled First Dauphin and Madame Royale completed in 1785.
• Elisabeth louise vigee le brun cause of death?+

  Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun died in 1842 at the age of 87.