Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun
Throughout history there have been, and always will be, artistic groups with differing ideas and morals, which causes them to clash. The art produced by these groups offer a visual representation of their beliefs, along with other insight on the social issues of the time period they are associated with. Women’s and human rights have been some of the most prevalent issues throughout history, and continue to be today. Artists tended to create artwork that reflected the issues, or attempted to serve as a positive distraction from them. Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun was a pioneer for female artists of today, and a great amount of her pieces were centered around the French monarchy. Her work was a balance between Rococo …show more content…
On the contrary, one of her works that represents the Rococo style the most is one of her many portraits of the queen herself. Portrait of Marie Antoinette or Marie Antoinette with a Rose from 1783 looks as though it was created with the Rococo style in mind, but the queen is portrayed in a dignified and regal manner, as opposed to many of the playful pieces found in this era (Smith “She Painted Marie Antoinette…”). While Marie’s attire is obviously over the top, it is not nearly as dramatic and theatrical as other works. Lebrun still incorporated the rich details in the clothing that was favored during Rococo times (Kleiner 751). In this era, she exhibited an exceptional amount of her work in the Salons, which was another major step for female artists (The Met Museum “Julie Lebrun as Flora”). Her career in general defied the odds in that time period, because women were definitely not respected as artists. In many cases they were not even allowed to attend figure drawing classes with their male contemporaries. Lebrun not only was able to live off of her art, but she was also recognized by the most important people in their society (Smith “She Painted Marie
Throughout history there have been, and always will be, artistic groups with differing ideas and morals, which causes them to clash. The art produced by these groups offer a visual representation of their beliefs, along with other insight on the social issues of the time period they are associated with. Women’s and human rights have been some of the most prevalent issues throughout history, and continue to be today. Artists tended to create artwork that reflected the issues, or attempted to serve as a positive distraction from them. Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun was a pioneer for female artists of today, and a great amount of her pieces were centered around the French monarchy. Her work was a balance between Rococo …show more content…
On the contrary, one of her works that represents the Rococo style the most is one of her many portraits of the queen herself. Portrait of Marie Antoinette or Marie Antoinette with a Rose from 1783 looks as though it was created with the Rococo style in mind, but the queen is portrayed in a dignified and regal manner, as opposed to many of the playful pieces found in this era (Smith “She Painted Marie Antoinette…”). While Marie’s attire is obviously over the top, it is not nearly as dramatic and theatrical as other works. Lebrun still incorporated the rich details in the clothing that was favored during Rococo times (Kleiner 751). In this era, she exhibited an exceptional amount of her work in the Salons, which was another major step for female artists (The Met Museum “Julie Lebrun as Flora”). Her career in general defied the odds in that time period, because women were definitely not respected as artists. In many cases they were not even allowed to attend figure drawing classes with their male contemporaries. Lebrun not only was able to live off of her art, but she was also recognized by the most important people in their society (Smith “She Painted Marie