Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun - Self-portrait in a straw hat

Title: Self-portrait in a straw hat
Artist: Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842)
Date: 1782
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 98 x 71 cm

This “Self-portrait” by Vigée-Lebrun depicts her as the successful painter and the beautiful and outgoing woman she was. The painting’s style is definitely rococo- fluffy, cheery, a soft color palette, an “osé” décolleté, and a vapory atmosphere.

Vigée-Lebrun made a name for herself as a painter of portraits in Ancien Régime society by serving as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette. After the French Revolution, she went into exile in Italy, Austria, Russia and Germany, and came back to France in 1801. She became a renowned European artist and was elected to art academies in ten cities.`