Elisabeth Louise Vigee-LeBrun - a Female Academician

Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait, 1790
(Gallerie degli Uffizi)

Art history is full of great male artists while we hear very little of the successful women who managed the almost impossible feat of carving out careers where no opportunities existed. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was one such artist who was not only the favorite portraitist of Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, but also to many notable aristocrats, artists, musicians and poets throughout 18th - 19th century Europe.  There is currently an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France, which displays 80 works from around the world of the artist who had a successful career in one of the most turbulent periods of European history.

Self_Portrait in Traveling Costume, 1789-90
(Private Collection)

This exhibition should be visited on site or online not only to view beautiful works of art from the Rococo period but also as an inspirational tale of one woman's journey of survival and success under some of the most unfavorable circumstances. The Met has a great exhibition page (link) that has all the works on display as well as the audioguide that is available in the museum. Of course nothing can compare to experiencing these works in person, but if you can not make it to the museum, this is a really great alternative. Instead of giving an overview of the exhibit, I want to take this opportunity to focus on the obstacles Vigee Le Brun had to overcome in order to become the celebrated artist of her time.

Vigee-LeBrunn, Peace Bringing Back Abundance,  1780,  exhibited at Salon of 1783
(Musee du Louvre)

This was the reception piece Vigee-LeBrun submitted into the Academie to be admitted as a member.  The French Royal Academy did not accept female artists as members on the premises of their supposed inferiority to the male artists but between its foundation in the 17th century and the revolution, a few women were allowed within its hallowed halls.  Out of the total of 450 members  there were between 12 to 15 who were female, and those would only would be accepted four at a time.  Elisabeth Louise Vigee-LeBrun along with Adelaide Labille-Guiard were accepted into the Academie in 1783 only after the deaths of two female artists.

Etienne Vigée, 1773, painted at 18 prior to joining the Academie de Saint-Luc
(Saint Louis Art Museum)

Prior to their acceptance into the academy both Elisabeth Louise Vigee-LeBrun along with Adelaide Labille-Guiardthey were members of the Academie de Saint-Luc which was the ancient artist's guild.  One of the original reasons for establishing the Academie de peinture et de sculpture was to distinguish real artists from the artisans and provide them with the necessary teachings besides drawing and painting to allow them to become the artistic geniuses they were.  Also the Academie was state sponsored and artist got paid by the government so they could create without being beholden to trade. Members of the Academy of Saint-Luc were frowned upon because of their involvement with the trade. The Allegory of Poetry was one of the works from Vigée Le Brun's first exhibition at the Academie de Saint-Luc.

Allegory of Poetry, 1774
(Henry and Catherine Robet)

Although Vigee-LeBrun aspired to be a history painter, the most prestigious of the genres, she could only be accepted as genre painter, two steps lower than male academicians.  Since women could not work from live models and were not educated in anatomy, they could not become history painters which would preclude them from having all the privileges the male artists gained like studio space and an allowance.  Although it was impossible for her to be a history painter, Vigee-LeBrun still produced a work of art that could actually very well have been accepted as such.

Study for Abundance, 1780
(Private Collection)

In Peace Bringing Back Abundance, Vigee-LeBrun represents two allegorical figures using traditional symbols, Peace on the right garbed in darker colors is wearing a crown of laurels on her dark hair, and carrying an olive branch, while Abundance is blond wearing white and gold and bearing a cornucopia full of fruits, flowers in her hair and holding ears of wheat, her fertility is pronounced with her exposed breast.  France had been a supporter of the American War of Revolution and this painting underscores that involvement.

Vigee-LeBrun showed incredible artistry in this piece but she was admitted into the Academie with reluctance plus pressure from the crown, because of her husband's profession of being an art dealer.   It seems the Academie did all they can to try to dissuade female artists from joining their ranks but one or two exceptional artists still managed to get by.

- This is an edited version, with additional content, of a prior post that was written in October 2011.

Elisabeth Vigee-LeBrunn and Jean Metzinger - A Dialog About Maternite

Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrunn, Madame Vigee LeBrunn and
Her  Daughter, Jeanne Lucie Louise, 1789
(Musee du Louvre)

Jean Metzinger, Femme a la Fenetre (Maternite), 1911
(Private Collection, Switzerland)

 Last week was mother's day and since I was busy celebrating as a mother, sister and an aunt, I could not find the time to sit and write.  Just because I have been remiss does not mean I can pass up an opportunity to write about the most utilized theme in art history, Mother and Child.

Jacques- Louis David - The Master of Neoclassicim

Jacques-Louis David, Self Portrait, 1794
(Musee du Louvre)

Jacques-Louis David was born into an upper class family with connections in the Academie  royale d'architecture (Royal Academy of Architecture) and was supposed to study to be either a lawyer or an architect.  But he was adamant about becoming an artist.  His father had died when he was nine years old leaving his education in the care of his uncles who themselves were architects.

He started his studies at the Academie de peinture et de sculpture but was soon disillusioned with the constraints of the strict academy education which he believed was designed to suppress artistic genius and originality, particularly his own.  This is thought to be the reason for his rebellion against the despotic institutions of the ancien regime during the Revolution, including the Royal Academy which he helped to abolish in 1793.1  After three consecutive tries, David finally won the prestigious Prix de Rome and could go and study there.  At first he said he was only interested in the works of the Renaissance masters but after he got to Rome, Classical sculpture became his main obsession and he captured the purity and power of contour from Winckelmann's teachings.

Jaques-Louis David, Belisarius Begging for Alms, 1781
(Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille)

Before David started painting Belisarius Begging for Alms in late 1780 as a preliminary entry submission for acceptance into the Academie, he asked the academy what subject he should paint, showing his compliancy. But some scholars argue that this painting actually signifies David's "prerevolutionary radicalism"  and his involvement in the Revolution was the logical conclusion of being a radical,  intellectual, enlightened artist.2


Belisarius was a very successful and loyal general in Byzantine Emperor Justinain's army but he fell from grace, his property was seized and he was blinded. Belisarius was reduced to begging in the streets.  This story was popular during the Enlightenment in mid 18th century France both in art and literature.  In the painting David depicts the moment when a blind old man accompanied by a child, holding out his helmet for a woman to put coins in it is recognized as Belisarius by one of the soldier's who served under him.  The soldier is horrified at seeing his old commander begging in the streets.  The underlying message  being 'this could happen to anyone who is a traitor to the crown" would be understood by the young artists who were in awe of David.

David has depicted the scene taking place in front of very rigid, solid, doric columns and a distant Roman city in the background.  The composition is perpendicular to the viewer's line of vision.  David's strong outlines delineates all the figures from one another and the background.  Although this painting is cited as the first manifesto to Neoclassical painting, there are some lapses in David's work.  The position of the soldier, behind and higher than the woman would necessitate him to be taller. While he has used proper perspective in depicting the tiles on the right side of the painting, the tiles on the left side do not have the illusion of going back in space.  David does not seem to be too concerned with such details and in the future would have his students work on the little details.

It is still a little obscure how David would produce such a subject that could very well be construed as a criticism of the monarchy but the concepts of Enlightenment and the sovereigns perspective on the arts seems to be intersecting during the reigns of Louis XV and XVI.  On the one hand the Enlightened artists, philosophers, and literary figures finding patronage and an intellectually fertile ground in the Salons of aristocratic ladies, the most interesting example being Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour being the protector of the Encyclopedia, and  on the  other some of those figures being arrested for the works discussed at those Salons. The more I learn, the more confounding I find 'the Age of Reason.'

1  Kohle, Hubertus. "The Road from Rome to Paris:  The Birth of a Modern Neoclassicim." Jacques-Louis David:  New Perspectives. Newark [Del.: University of Delaware, 2006. 71. Print
2 Ibid., 74