THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
A Passion for Prints The legacy of curators William M. Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor, who bought 90 percent of the Met’s current 1.3 million object print collection, celebrated in an exhibition.
GERRY GOODSTEIN
Theater Review: ‘Please Continue’ Whether to follow or resist orders.
See C2
See C4 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
C1 February 19–25, 2016
VIGÉE LE BRUN
Self-portrait by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1790. Oil on canvas.
WO M A N , A R T I S T, E N T R E P R E N E U R By Kati Vereshaka | Epoch Times Staff
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EW YORK—More often than not, one will see a portrait of Marie Antoinette before, if ever, getting to know the name of Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842)—one of the finest 18th century French painters and among one of the most important women artists in history.
The artist captures her subjects in suspended animation, as if they just turned to us, and are about to complete a sentence in a long and candid conversation.
Vigée Le Brun was catapulted to fame when, at the age of 23, she was summoned to Versailles to paint Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), who was a few months younger than Vigée Le Brun. For the first time, and possibly the last, this full-length life size portrait of Marie Antoinette hangs in the current exhibition Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France at the Metropolitan Museum of Art alongside two other life size portraits of Marie Antoinette. The 80 works on view are mostly paintings and a few pastels from the self-taught artist who defied all convention and reached unprecedented success not just in France, but in nine other countries throughout Europe. See Vigée Le Brun on C8