�lisabeth Vig�e-Lebrun, Memoirs of a Painter

At the age of 15, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun was earning enough money from her portrait painting to support herself, her widowed mother and her younger brother. She became Marie Antoinette´s favorite painter; European aristocrats, actors and writers were also her patrons; and she was elected a member of the art academies in 10 cities. Trained by her father, the minor portraitist Louis Vigée, she joined Paris´s Academy of Saint Luke at 19. Two years later she married Pierre Lebrun, an art dealer...