Madame Vigće Le Brun, 1755-1842: the artist in exile

A Goodden - The Court Historian, 1997 - Taylor & Francis
A Goodden
The Court Historian, 1997Taylor & Francis
M·• adame Vigee Le Brun's humble beginnings may explain her devotion to monarchs-
exceptN apoleon·-and courts, an enthusiasm she prolonged by emigrating from France in
1789 and living under absolute rulers for the next twelve years. Louis David, whose ill-will
and growing political influence may explain her departure, called her a" servant of
quality"(that is, a court lackey), and her own claim to be indifferent to titles has no truth. The
clients she liked and cultivated from a remarkably young age were predominantly royal and …
M·• adame Vigee Le Brun's humble beginnings may explain her devotion to monarchs-exceptN apoleon·-and courts, an enthusiasm she prolonged by emigrating from France in 1789 and living under absolute rulers for the next twelve years. Louis David, whose ill-will and growing political influence may explain her departure, called her a" servant of quality"(that is, a court lackey), and her own claim to be indifferent to titles has no truth. The clients she liked and cultivated from a remarkably young age were predominantly royal and noble, and they patronized her because of her talent, skill, charm, and beauty. She won an assured position in the world of courts, becoming a familiar of the Queens of France, Naples and Prussia, the Empress of Russia and the Prince of Wales. Flattering her social superiors in paint was her stock-in-trade: there was an unspoken agreement that she would make her sitters-at least her female ones-appear alluring, dignified or charming. The douceur de vivre she fixed on canvas excluded all dissent, and it is perhaps the politically uncritical nature of her portraiture-and, until recently, the disfavour suffered by ancien regime art-that has bedevilled her reputation.(Now, at last, the Louvre boasts a Vigee Le Brun room, and her star is rising again.) She cultivated her adopted world with tact and skill, and genuinely believed that courts promoted elevated values. Only occasionally do her paintings hint at vacuousness.
Her work possesses far more than the faded charm which Balzac ascribes to it in Ursule Mirouet: she painted a gallery of portraits that epitomize the old order at a time of sharp political and social change, and possess a clear historical value. But however enchanted she remained with the courtly world, she was also a hard-headed businesswoman: despite her loathing of post-Revolutionary capitalism she was as cash-conscious as any of Balzac's businessmen. She seems always to have charged what the market would bear, though she disliked the rumours that her alleged lover, the Comptroller-General Calonne, had paid far more than the 41,000 francs agreed for her portrait of him. She periodically regretted the urge to accumulate money, and admitted that it resulted in second-rate work. Her greed
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