Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) was a French portrait painter, best known as the favorite portraitist of Queen Marie Antoinette. Forced to flee France at the outbreak of the Revolution, she built a brilliant international career at the courts of Italy, Austria, and Russia, producing several hundred portraits over her long life.

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Life events

Born in Paris
16 April 1755

Élisabeth Louise Vigée was born in Paris, daughter of the portraitist Louis Vigée, who gave her her first instruction.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Began working professionally as a portraitist while still a teenager
c. 1770

By her mid-teens Vigée was painting portraits professionally and helping support her family.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married the art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun
11 January 1776

Vigée married the painter and art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, gaining access to his collections and clientele.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Painted her first portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette
1778

Summoned to Versailles, Vigée Le Brun painted Marie Antoinette from life, beginning a relationship that produced some thirty portraits of the queen.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Admitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture
31 May 1783

With royal backing, Vigée Le Brun was received into the French Royal Academy, one of only a handful of women members.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Worked at courts across Italy, Austria, and Russia
1789 – 1801

In exile Vigée Le Brun painted aristocratic sitters in Rome, Naples, Vienna, and Saint Petersburg, where she spent six years at the Russian court.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Fled France at the outbreak of the French Revolution
6 October 1789

On the night the royal family was brought from Versailles to Paris, Vigée Le Brun fled France with her daughter, beginning twelve years of exile.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Returned to France after her name was removed from the émigré list
1802

Vigée Le Brun returned to Paris in 1802, later making extended stays in London and Switzerland.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Published her memoirs, Souvenirs
1835 – 1837

In her eighties, Vigée Le Brun published her three-volume memoirs, a vivid account of art and society across pre- and post-Revolutionary Europe.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Died in Paris
30 March 1842

Vigée Le Brun died in Paris at the age of 86 and was buried at Louveciennes.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓