Three Women - Elisabeth (evening)
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May
3
Mon
£10
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun: How not to lose your Head
Despite
becoming painter to Marie-Antoinette, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun used her innate
wit, and enormous talent, not only to survive the horrors of the French
Revolution, but to flourish. She had married an artist and art dealer to get
ahead, but when she was excluded from admission to the Académie Royale because
of his career – a conflict of interests, they said – her royal connections
meant that the Academicians just could not say ‘no’ – although they used her
admission as an excuse to limit the number of women they would allow in the
future. When the going got tough, she didn’t worry about leaving Monsieur Le Brun
behind and fled, with her daughter, to Italy, and the court of King Ferdinand
IV and Queen Maria Carolina – the sister of Marie-Antoinette. We will follow
her path through society, and her journey across the continent – as far as
Austria and Russia – all the while bearing in mind her single-minded
determination and self-confidence, which is evident from her memoirs, Souvenirs
de ma vie, said to be more a work of fiction than her many glorious
portraits.