Louise-Élisabeth (Vigée) Vigée Le Brun (1755 - 1842)

Born 16 Apr 1755 in Paris, Île-de-France, France

Wife of Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun — married 11 Jan 1776 in Paris, Île-de-France, France

Died 30 Mar 1842 at age 86 in Paris, Seine, France

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Isabelle Huth [send private message] and France Project WikiTree [send private message]

Ce profil est géré par le projet France. Join: France Project Discuss: france

Biography

Élisabeth (Vigée) Vigée Le Brun is Notable.

Louise Elisabeth was born in 1755. She was the daughter of Louis Vigée, painter and member of the Académie de Saint-Luc, and Jeanne Maissin. ^[1] She was a prominent French painter. A committed royalist, she was acclaimed as a court painter in France and later in Russia while in exile. ^[2]

Until the age of 11, she was educated at the Convent of the Trinity. She painted her first masterpiece in 1770: the portrait of her mother. In 1778, she became the official painter to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Her fame was great, and she had many commissions for paintings. ^[2]

In 1776, she married Jean-Baptiste Le Brun, ^[3] son of the painter Pierre Le Brun. ^[4] They had a daughter, Jeanne-Julie-Louise Le Brun, who was also a painter later. ^[5]

In 1789, she left France with her daughter. She went first to Italy, then to Austria where she benefited from imperial protection. Elisabeth triumphed in Europe. Then she stayed a few years in Russia, where she painted many commissions of Russian high society. At the request of her husband, the divorce was pronounced in 1794. She returned to France in 1802, and she lived for a while under the same roof as her ex-husband. Then she left to Switzerland and England, returning to France several times and permanently from 1809. In 1805 she was commissioned to paint a portrait of Caroline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon. She lived between her country house in Louveciennes and Paris. In 1835, she published her recollections. ^[2]

She passed away in Paris in 1842 and was buried in the parish cemetery of Louveciennes. ^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Birth Reconstitution Parish Records of Saint-Eustache (Paris, France) 1530-1792 Fichier BMS Saint-Eustache vol 152 Viaux-Vincelot p52.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Wikipedia Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
3. ↑ Marriage Archives de Paris, Etat civil reconstitué (XVIe-1859), Mariages Viez (1828) à Viger (1846), V3E/M 1004 p39.
4. ↑ Wikipedia Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun
5. ↑ Wikipedia Julie Le Brun
6. ↑ Death Archives de Paris, Etat civil reconstitué (XVIe-1859) Décès Viez (1853) à Vigenti (1850), V3E/D 1472 p46.

• Wikidata: Q213163

Acknowledgments Thanks to Jane Schaefer for starting this profile.