1 / 1

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

Shown from the knees up, a young woman with pale skin, wearing a short wine-red jacket over an ivory-white gown, gazes out at us from this vertical portrait painting. She sits in a chair surrounded by emerald-green cushions, which are covered with a light green floral pattern. The woman’s shoulders are squared toward us as her knees angle slightly to our right. The skirt of her gown is patterned with coin-sized gold dots against the white background, and the scooped neckline of her bodice is trimmed with gold ribbon. The top of at least four buttons on her velvet jacket are buttoned under her bust, and a cinnamon-brown belt with an iron-gray buckle, perhaps a cameo, cinches her waist. Her long, ash-brown hair is loosely pulled up with curls faming her face and falling to her shoulders. One braided plait is interwoven through a loose white turban, the ends of which drape over her shoulders. She has gray eyes under thin brows, a rose-red bow mouth, and her cheeks are tinged with pink. Gleaming, laurel-green drop earrings dangle from her ears. Her right arm, to our left, rests on an oversized green cushion, which balances on the carved, gold arm of her chair. Soft light from the upper left glints on the gold ribbons of the turban and cushion, and on her earrings and jacket buttons. The wall behind her is mottled with smoke gray and moss green. The artist has signed and dated the painting in the upper right, “Mde Le Brun 1789.”

Madame d'Aguesseau de Fresnes, 1789

Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun

Not on View

What do our clothing choices say about us? This young aristocrat wears three of the biggest fashion trends of late-18th-century France. Her turban and jacket were inspired by Turkish dress. Her muslin and silk blouse and skirt evoke the flowing robes of ancient Greece and Rome. And the Wedgwood cameo at her waist depicts a scene from a British novel. One of Queen Marie Antoinette’s favorite artists, Vigée Le Brun made her name painting portraits of fashionable women, using clothing to define their public images. This portrait shows how consumer fashion, which came into its own during this period, borrowed from global cultures and allowed the wealthy to shape their identities.

Dive deeper

Politics played an important role in the career of Madame Vigée Le Brun. A painter to Marie Antoinette since 1779, she was elected to the Royal Academy of Painting by the queen’s decree in 1783. Her close ties to the royal family put her life in danger during the Revolution and she fled France in 1789, not to return until 1802. Therefore, it is not surprising that her portraits of society ladies reveal graceful poses, finished surfaces, and sweet, but controlled expressions, that both mask and betray the charged political climate surrounding her sitters.

This young woman’s elaborate costume displays three different foreign cultures. Her turban and jacket recall a Turkish harem outfit. The allusions to the exotic Orient signal an escape from the present as well as an Enlightenment acceptance of non-western ideas. Her flowing white gown recalls the costumes of ancient Greece and Rome, meant to inspire republican virtues. The prominent Wedgwood cameo at her sash is English; at this time British imports represented products of another political system, a parliamentary monarchy, that was considered as a potential model for France. In rigorously detailing the costume, Vigée Le Brun shows how deeply contemporary politics had penetrated daily life. The subject’s engaging expression conveys the nascent tensions of the period.

Object Data

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 107 x 83.2 cm (42 1/8 x 32 3/4 in.)

framed: 133.7 x 111.8 cm (52 5/8 x 44 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1946.7.16

Artists / Makers

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (artist) French, 1755 - 1842

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Detail Information

Inscription

upper right: Mde Le Brun / 1789.

Provenance

Presumably the collection of the sitter and her family; possibly (Ferol, Paris), c. 1850.[1] Mrs. Stephen Lyne-Stephens [1813-1894, née Yolande-Marie-Louise Duvernay],[2] Lynford Hall, Norfolk, Upper Grove House, Roehampton, and Paris; (her estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9-11 and 13-17 May 1895, 3rd day [May 11], no. 360, sold for 2,250 guineas); (Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London); sold 13 May 1895 to J. Pierpont Morgan I [1837-1913], London;[3] consigned July 1943 by the Morgan estate to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold October 1943 to (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York); purchased 3 January 1944 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1946 to NGA.

[1] According to T. Humphry Ward and William Roberts, Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince's Gate & Dover House, London: Dutch & Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, 2 vols., London, 1907: unpaginated. Frits Lugt, Répertoir des catalogues de ventes publiques intéressant l'art ou la curiosité, 4 vols., The Hague, 1939-1964: 2:nos. 22745 and 25136, records two sales in the 1850s for the dealer Férol, one of 22 January 1856, in which there were paintings, and the second on 7-8 December 1859, composed of prints and books. The NGA portrait was featured in neither.

[2] On the life and career of Mrs. Stephens Lyne-Stephens (earlier in her life, the French ballerina Pauline Duvernay), who was an art collector of considerable stature, see Louis Véron, Les mémoires d'un bourgeois de Paris, 6 vols., Paris, 1854; Charles Boigne, Ces demoiselles de l'opéra, Paris, 1887: 110-118; Lillian Moore, "Pauline Duvernay," The Dancing Times (January 1934): 449-452; Cyril W. Beaumont, Three French Dancers of the Nineteenth Century: Duvernay, Livry, and Beaugrand, London, 1935; Ivor Forbes Guest, The Romantic Ballet in Paris, Middletown, Connecticut, 1966.

[3] On p. 34 of the Saterlee Album (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library Archives), there is a photograph of the upstairs drawing room of J.P. Morgan's London home at Princes Gate (see J. Pierpont Morgan, Collector: European Decorative Arts from the Wadsworth Atheneum, exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1987: 32, fig. 7, 35, fig. 10). The painting is included in J.P. Morgan Jr.'s list of Morgan possessions lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1912 (document in the Morgan Library, box 168, folder 3, p. 143, no. 1347, as the "Portrait of the Marquise de Laborde by Vigée Le Brun...," with the Morgan inventory number 1341); Eliot W. Rowlands, personal communication with Joseph Baillio.

[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1674.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Lyne-Stephens, Stephen, Mrs.
Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1896: Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1896, no. 53.

1898: Pictures by Painters of the French School, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1898, no.80.

1946: Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 788.

1982: Baillio, Joseph. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. (Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum.) Fort Worth, 1982: 88, under no. 28, fig. 31.

Bibliography

1835: Vigée Le Brun, Élisabeth Louise. Souvenirs de Madame Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. 3 vols. Paris, 1835 – 1837: 1:337.

1897: Roberts, William. Memorials of Christie's: A Record of Art Sales From 1766 to 1896. 2 vols. London, 1897: 2:250, repro.

1907: Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, English School. London, privatedly printed, 1907: unpaginated.

1907: Ward, T. Humphry and William Roberts. "Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince's Gate." (Dover House, London): Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, 2 vols. London, 1907: 2: n.p.

1908: Nolhac, Pierre de. Madame Vigée-Le Brun: Peintre de la reine Marie-Antoinette. Paris, 1908: 143.

1913: Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 8, no. 1 (January 1913): 12.

1913: Burroughs, Bryson. "A Loan Exhibition of Mr. Morgan’s Paintings." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 8 (January 1913): 12.

1913: Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813 – 1912. 5 vols. London, 1913 – 1915: 2:668.

1915: Helm, W. H. Vigée-Lebrun 1755-1842: Her Life, Works, and Friendships. London, 1915: 203, as Madame de Laborde.

1919: Blum, André. Madame Vigée-Lebrun, peintre des grandes dames du xviii e siècle. Paris, 1919: 94.

1945: National Gallery of Art. "Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection." Washington, 1945. Reprint 1947, 1959: 166, repro.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 166, repro., as Marquise de Laborde.

1946: Frankfurter, Alfred M. “Supplement to the Kress Collection in the National Gallery.” Art News 44, no. 20 (February 1946): 84, 82, repro., 83, repro. (detail).

1946: Frankfurter, Alfred M. Supplement to the Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1946: 67, repro. Marquise de Laborde.

1946: National Gallery of Art. Recent Additions to the Kress Collection. Washington, 1946: n.p.

1948: New York. "French XVIIIth Century Paintings." (Exh. cat. Wildestein & Co.) New York, 1948: n.p.

1948: Wildenstein and Company. French XVIIIth Century Paintings. New York, 1948: 4.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 128, color repro.

1956: Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 244, repro. 248.

1959: National Gallery of Art. "Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection" 2nd ed. Washington, 1959: 362, repro., no. 788.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 362, repro.

1962: Smith, David Loeffler. "Observations on a Few Celebrated Women Artists." American Artist (January 1962): 52, repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 317, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 136.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 124, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 366, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 343, no. 466, color repro.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 361-362, fig. 328.

1980: Baillio, Joseph. "Identification de quelques portraits d'anonymes de Vigée Le Brun au Etats-Unis". Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th per., no 96 (November 1980): 158, repro.

1982: Baillio, Joseph. "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun." (Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum.) Fort Worth, 1982: 88, under no. 28, fig. 31.

1984: Walker, John. "National Gallery of Art, Washington." New York, 1984: 341, no. 464, color repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 341, no. 464, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 424, repro.

1988: Ribeiro, Aileen. Fashion in the French Revolution. London, 1988: 38-39, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 175, repro.

1997: Mitchell, Jerrine. “Picturing Sisters: 1790 Portraits by J. L. David.” 18th Century Studies 31, no. 2 (Winter 1997 – 1998): 194, fig. 14.

1997: Mittler, Gene A., and Rosalind Ragans. Understanding Art. New York, 1997: 186, fig. 12-11.

2000: Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 8, under fig. 2.

2005: Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 61, fig. 70, 74 (not in the exhibition).

2009: Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 94, 443-449, color repro.