Daring

Supremely talented and strategically charming, Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun (1755-1842) overcame tragedy and broke gender barriers to reach the height of success as a portrait painter, first in Paris, and then across Europe. After losing her father at age twelve and facing financial insecurity, she fought to gain access to artistic training and opportunity. She was pressured to marry at age twenty, to an art dealer who both helped and harmed her career. Vigee Le Brun deployed her intelligence and beauty to attract powerful clients, who relied on her to style the personal identities they projected to the world. Vigee Le Brun's salons were the talk of Paris, and she became court painter to Marie Antoinette. Then came the French Revolution, when marginalized groups demanded change to centuries-old systems of oppression. Vigee Le Brun was forced to reexamine her alliances and run for her life, taking her young daughter but leaving her husband behind. Making her way through the countrysides and capitals of Europe and Russia-including a stay at the imperial court of Catherine the Great-the artist conquered fear and adversity to refashion her life and her art. Ages thirteen and up