Daring: The Life and Art of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Gr 8 Up–Pomeroy tells the story of a gifted and accomplished woman who defied convention to support herself as a renowned painter during upheaval in 18th-century France. Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s portraiture was personal and political, displaying women of power and status, including herself. Born into an artistic family, her education was cut short when her father died, leaving the family without financial support. Encouraged to take up the brush, the young woman embarked on a career as an artist-for-hire painting portraits. Marrying an art dealer was a boon and a challenge, as her spouse facilitated her artistic endeavors, but controlled her income. Queen Marie Antoinette intervened on her behalf after she served as the official portrait painter of the fashionable royal matriarch, assuring her admission into the Royal Academy. With the onset of the French Revolution, Vigée Le Brun fell from grace by association and joined aristocrats who fled the country. Traveling with her sole surviving child and a governess, the young mother spent three years viewing art and was well-received abroad, especially in Russia, where she served as portrait painter to Catherine the Great. Continuing to battle personal and socio-economic challenges throughout her life, the prolific artist died at age 86 with a body of work consisting of 800 paintings portraying aspects of politics, family, and society. Pomeroy portrays Vigée Le Brun as a resilient and determined trailblazer who cleverly navigated difficult terrain during turbulent times, all while displaying a remarkable sense of ambition, pragmatism and self-preservation. The work includes a cast of characters, notes and sources, vibrant illustrations, and infoboxes that provide historical, biographical, and geographical context.