Vigée Le Brun’s retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art inspired this biography.

Denied an artistic education because of her sex, Vigeé Le Brun succeeded in the male-dominated art world by developing a unique artistic style.  Beautiful and charming, Queen Marie-Antoinette’s chosen painter, she became the consummate insider in Old Régime France.  At the pinnacle of fame and fortune, however, the Revolution forced the artist to flee, leaving everything behind except her only child.

Cast on a storm-tossed continent, solely reliant on her palette, this single working mother survived due to cachet, charisma, and artistic renown.  Her many portrait commissions received before, during, and after her twelve year exile reside in major museums around the world.  That oeuvre and her memoirs, written late in life, plus a re-examination of archives and the judgment of contemporaries, provide the opportunity to explore the life of this remarkable woman and place her within the context of her momentous times.

Besides being a brilliant artist, Vigeé Le Brun shone as a mother, wife, friend, socialite, traveler, lover of the arts and nature.  Her stirring story is one of triumph, adversity, perseverance and ultimately, peace.

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