Le Brun, MARIE

Le Brun, MARIE, born in Paris, 16th April 1755, was a daughter of one Vigée, a painter of little note, and in 1776 married J. B. P. Le Brun, a picture-dealer and grand-nephew of Charles Le Brun. Her great beauty, as well as the charm of her painting, speedily made her the fashion in Paris and at Versailles. 'Le Brun de la beauté le peintre et le modèle' was the friend of La Harpe and D'Alembert, copied Greuze, and painted all the fine ladies and gentlemen of the day. Her first portrait of Marie Antoinette (in 1779) led to a lasting friendship with the queen of France. She subsequently painted numerous portraits of various members of the royal family, and in 1783 was admitted, on the proposition of Joseph Vernet—though after much opposition on account of her sex—a member of the Royal Academy of Painting. She became more than ever the fashion, but left Paris for Italy at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, and after a species of triumphal progress through Europe, being admitted a member of the principal academies of painting, including that of St Petersburg, she arrived in London in 1802. There she painted portraits of the Prince of Wales, Lord Byron, and other celebrities. In 1805 she returned to Paris, where she lived until her death (30th March 1842), and where her salon was ever the resort of artists, amateurs, and people of fashion. Of unblemished character, of great industry, and of immense charm both of manner and of personal appearance, Madame Vigée Le Brun enjoyed a lifelong popularity. Her drawing is correct, her imagination moderate, her colouring delicate, graceful, and pleasing. Her delightful portrait of herself, gay and smiling, now in the Uffizi gallery at Florence, is well known. Many of her best works are in the Louvre gallery in Paris. See her Souvenirs (3 vols. 1837), a work illustrated with 662 portraits and 200 landscapes, chiefly taken in England and Switzerland.