Moments of Joy Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun

by Susan Franz (Editor), Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, Lionel Strachey (Translator)

Overview

Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun was the daughter of an artist and studied the masterworks of Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van Dyck. In 1783, she was admitted to the France's Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Before she fled the French Revolution, she made her way painting portraits of the French court, including Marie Antoinette. In exile, she painted the royalty of Naples, Russia, and Great Britain.
Unlike most of the great old masters, Vigee Le Brun left a detailed memoir recounting her travels an independent woman and artist. With a lively wit she describes meeting Catherine the Great, the hazards of painting sessions with live eagles, and sharp observations of daily life in post-revolutionary France and pre-revolutionary Russia. With humor, she observed that the legendary "blackbird pie" became an extraordinary event when live birds encountered lofty powdered wigs. She was aware that in a era with few divorces, there were many duels.
Moments of Joy--Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun is generously illustrated with 79 high-quality color plates. This is a readers' edition with quality design, comfortably-sized text, and a format that is easy to hold and use. It is the perfect introduction to this great artist.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940158026133
Publisher:	Beautiful Book Design
Publication date:	02/15/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	186
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun was a member of the French Royal Academy and painted portraits of the good and great of Europe from the end of the 18th Century into the early 19th Century. She escaped the violence of the French Revolution and spent much of her life traveling and painting in the courts of Europe. She studied the works of Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van Dyck. Her first monograph exhibit was held at the Palace of Versailles in 2015. From there, her work was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Feb-May 2016) and the The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (Jun-Sep 2016).