Judith Lissauer Cromwell is the author of the new biography Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Portrait of an Artist, 1755-1842. Cromwell's other books include Good Queen Anne. She lives in New York.
Q: What inspired you to write a biography of the artist Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun?
A: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art held a retrospective of Vigée le Brun’s work. Reviewers praised it to such an extent that, despite never having heard of this artist, I went to see the exhibit.
Vigée Le Brun’s paintings were riveting, her brief introductory biography intriguing. This unusual woman, I vowed to myself, would be the subject of my next book.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: Extensive research is essential in order to do justice to the subject, present a well-rounded image. The biographer must cast a wide net, delve into every available source and dig to find those that are not; I also went to London and Paris to see original source material only available in archives.
You cannot leave any stone unturned -- you may not always find what you’re looking for, but you’ll always find something.
Vigée Le Brun was an exceptional woman. Aside from her artistic achievements, self-confidence, and dedication to her art; strong values and basic integrity; intellectual interests, appreciation of beauty in nature, and delight in the society of friends gave Vigée Le Brun the strength to meet life’s challenges.
Q: What difficulties did she face as a female artist? Were there other prominent contemporary women artists in France?
A: Girls were barred from attending life classes, basic to art education, because girls were thought too modest to look at the male nudes who posed for art students so that they could learn anatomy.
Girls were barred from schools where aspiring male artists learned the mechanics of their profession (drawing perspective and creating complex compositions) and basic subjects for history painting (the top professional tier). Because learning mathematics, the classics, and history would hurt a female’s health, her ability to reproduce.
Vigée Le Brun overcame these barriers by studying the works of famous painters. Driven by ambition, she poured talent, character, and courage into creating a unique painting style – brilliant use of color, dramatic flair, perceptive poses, and the ability to present her sitters as vibrant human beings.
Vicious slander that anti-government pamphleteers fabricated about Queen Marie-Antoinette splashed onto her favorite painter. Vigée Le Brun could ill afford to ignore the slurs because, as a female artist, her credibility depended on keeping her spotless reputation. The slander weighed heavily in Vigée Le Brun’s decision to flee Paris as the Revolution ramped up.
Sexual allegations dogged any woman who reached artistic renown. Hence, despite glowing reviews of Vigée Le Brun’s paintings, some critics said a male lover painted them – no woman could be so talented.
Neither beautiful, diligent, charming, and popular Vigée Le Brun, Marie-Antoinette’s favorite painter, nor sober, painstaking Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, painter to Mesdames de France (the king’s aunts) made much of the “rivalry” thrust on them by male art critics who sought to rouse reader interest, disparage the two women, and accuse them of sexual misconduct.
Q: What do you see as her legacy today?
A: Vigée Le Brun’s success in carrying the genre of portraiture to unparalleled peaks left posterity a striking picture of an exciting time in Western history, a time when Europe stood on the cusp of the modern era.
This attainment distinguishes Vigée Le Brun not only for the historical connection that gives many of her portraits particular importance, but also because her talent assures the most illustrious of her creations a prominent place in any premier painting collection.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Since Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Portrait of an Artist, 1755-1842 is my fourth biography about a notable woman who has made a difference in Western history, I’ve started to work on another – Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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