LE BRUN BREAKS FOR THE BORDER

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was one of France’s greatest portraitists and an extraordinarily adventurous traveller. Born in Paris in 1755, she toured Flanders and the Netherlands with her artdealer husband in 1782 and was inspired by the works of Rubens, which “delighted and inspired me to such a degree that I made a portrait of myself at Brussels, striving to obtain the same effects”.

The lively, informal style she developed was controversial but won favour with Marie-Antoinette, and this association was to make her career. She often visited the young queen in Versailles, painting more than 30 portraits of her and the royal family until the 1789 revolution turned her world upside down. Marie-Antoinette’s arrest forced Le Brun to flee France – first to Rome and then Naples, where she painted Nelson’s lover, Lady Hamilton.

For the next 12 years she travelled almost ceaselessly, sustained by her reputation as a court painter (she was elected to art academies in 10 cities) and aided by introductions to the highest echelons of European society. During that time she spent three years in Italy, another three in Vienna, and from 1795-1801 had a highly successful stay in Russia. Her commission to paint Catherine the Great only failed when the Empress unfortunately died before she could sit for her. After a trip to Germany, she managed to return to France in 1802. Her wanderlust hadn’t died, however: she travelled to London in 1803 – where she admired the work of Sir Joshua Reynolds – and Switzerland in 1807.

Aisling O’Leary

Palace poser: Le Brun’s Marie-Antoinette portraits hang at the Château de Versailles