Vigée Le Brun
By: Joseph Baillio, Katharine Baetjer, Paul Lang ; contributions by Ekaterina Deryabina, Gwenola Firmin, Stéphane Guégan, Anabelle Kienle Poňka, Xavier Salmon, Anna Sulimova
Contributors: Baetjer, Katharine, author; Lang, Paul, 1958- author; Deryabina, Ekaterina, contributor; Firmin, Gwenola, 1970- contributor; Guégan, Stéphane, contributor; Poňka, Anabelle Kienle, contributor; Salmon, Xavier, contributor; Sulimova, Anna, contributor; Vigée-Lebrun, Louise-Elisabeth, 1755-1842; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France); National Gallery of Canada
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
ISBN-13: 9781588395818
Subjects: French Painting; French Portrait painting; Exhibitions; Portrait painters; Women painters; History
Other titles: Vigée le Brun :
Description: Elisabeth Louise Viǧe Le Brun (1755-1842) was one of the greatest 18th-century French painters and among the most important women artists of all time. Celebrated for her expressive portraits of French royalty and aristocracy, especially of her patron and friend Marie Antoinette, she exemplified artistic success and personal resourcefulness in an age when women were rarely allowed either. Forced to flee France during the Revolution, Le Brun traveled throughout Europe for sixteen years, painting royal and noble sitters in the courts of Naples, Russia, Austria, Poland, and Germany. She returned to France in 1805, under the reign of Emperor Napoleon I, where her artistic career continued to flourish. Alongside 85 of her finest paintings and drawings from international museums and collections, this handsome volume details Viǧe Le Brun's story, portraying a talented and intelligent artist who was able to negotiate a shifting political and geographic landscape. Providing further context for the life of this extraordinary individual, essays by international experts address topics such as her travels in exile and the position of women artists in the Salons.
Notes: The French catalog, "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun", under the direction of Joseph Baillio and Xavier Salmon was published in 2015 for the Paris venue, includes some different essays, and different entries for exhibited works. The Canadian catalog, entitled "Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun", by Joseph Baillio, Katharine Baetjer, and Paul Lang, and contributions by Ekaterina Deryabina, Gwenola Firmin, Stéphane Guégan, Anabelle Kienle Poňka, Xavier Salmon and Anna Sulimova was published in 2016.

Translations from French and Russian texts.

Catalog of the exhibition "Vigée le Brun: woman artist in revolutionary France" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from February 15-May 15, 2016 and at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, from June 10-September 11, 2016 (entitled "Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842): the portraitist to Maríe Antoinette"); a related exhibition (entitled "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun") was held at the Grand Palais, Galeries nationales, Paris from September 23, 2015-January 11, 2016.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 260-272) and index.
Table of contents: title: Lenders to the exhibition -- Directors' foreword / -- Thomas P. Campbell and Marc Mayer -- Acknowledgments -- Contributors to the catalogue; title: The artistic and social odyssey of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun  -- Joseph Baillio; title: The women of the French Royal Academy  -- Katharine Baetjer; title: Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun and the European spirit -- Paul Lang-- Catalogue-- Map of the travels of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun-- Chronology of the life of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.