Elisabeth LeBrun: France in Turmoil Gave Us An Artist to Remember

 She seemed to like self-portraits.


And there is


Nothing


Wrong with that.


Because in my opinion, self-confidence is a beautiful thing.


You need it when you are a largely self-taught artist, and a woman at that – a woman working to survive in the 18th century, trying to keep your neck out of the guillotine of the French Revolution.


Such was the life of Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, born April 16, 1755.


Besides, one of the best of her self-portraits, in my opinion, is a tender depiction of her with her daughter. She is smiling, slightly open-mouthed. It’s an “awe-sweet” work of art for our modern eyes. It was a scandal to her contemporaries. You didn’t depict people, especially yourself, with an open-mouthed smile, not by the rules of art in 18th Century France. Maybe all the people with rotten teeth resented people who had nice ones to show off.


Of course, Elisabeth painted plenty of portraits of other people, including various members of royalty. She was a Royalist, certainly – and that cost her dearly in the aforementioned Revolution.  


There is so much more to her life than this, but I can only put a few paragraphs into a blog post. Google her art. Seriously. Google her art and be moved. Look at her self-portrait composed at only 16 years of age. 

I had some family plans tonight so I'm pounding out this post just before bedtime. Didn't have time to research too deeply into what might have been served at her table, but this link might help:

Living a French Life - Recreating 17th-century Meal







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