The foremost woman artist of her age, Elisabeth Vigâee Le Brun (1755-1842) exerted her considerable charm to become the friend, and then official portraitist, of Marie Antoinette. Though profitable, this role made her a public and controversial figure, and in 1789 it precipitated her exile. In a Europe torn by strife and revolution, this singularly gifted and high-spirited woman nevertheless managed to thrive as an independent, self-supporting artist, doggedly setting up studios in Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and London. Long overlooked or dismissed, Vigâee Le Brun's portraits now hang in the Louvre, in a room of their own, as well as in all leading art museums of the world. Illustrations include sixteen of her portraits presented in full color.--From publisher description.

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Illuminates links between the nineteenth-century French novelist's complex personality and his art, showing that his personal loves, disappointments, and involvement in the political and social issues of his day provided source material for his literary creations