Elizabeth Vigee le Brun (circle) (1755-1842)
| Artist Name | Elizabeth Vigee le Brun (circle) (1755-1842) |
|---|---|
| Title | Oval Portrait of Madam van Robais |
| Description | This fine French Old Master portrait oil painting on canvas dates to circa 1770 and is attributed to the circle of Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun. The sitter is Madam van Robais. The van Robais family is a surviving French family, of Flemish origin, and established in 1665 in Abbeville (Somme),where it was naturalized French from 1666. A wealthy family from cloth manufacture, they owned the magnificent Château de Bagatelle. Madame van Robais was invited to Paris by Marie-Antoinette in 1784, came back and repainted the summer room in the Pompeian style that was latest Parisian fashion. A beautiful bust length Old Master portrait oil painting in a fine gilded oval frame with Madam van Robais in a white dress and red shawl. Sitter details verso. |
| Provenance | London Collection |
| Medium | Oil on Canvas |
| Size | 26 x 20 inches |
| Frame | Framed. 33 inches by 27 inches approx. Period oval frame in good condition. |
| Condition | Excellent condition |
| Biography | Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842) is one of the finest 18th-century French painters and among the most important of all women artists. An autodidact with exceptional skills as a portraitist, she achieved success in France and Europe during one of the most eventful, turbulent periods in European history. In 1776, she married the leading art dealer in Paris; his profession at first kept her from being accepted into the prestigious Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Nevertheless, through the intervention of Marie Antoinette, she was admitted at the age of 28 in 1783, becoming one of only four women members. Obliged to flee France in 1789 because of her association with the queen, she travelled to Italy, where in 1790 she was elected to membership in the Accademia di San Luca, Rome. Independently, she worked in Florence, Naples, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Berlin before returning to France, taking sittings from, among others, members of the royal families of Naples, Russia, and Prussia. While in exile, she exhibited at the Paris Salons. She was remarkable not only for her technical gifts but for her understanding of and sympathy with her sitters. |
| Price | £18000 |
