Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Memoirs of a Painter

At the age of 15, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun was earning enough money from her portrait painting to support herself, her widowed mother and her younger brother. She became Marie Antoinette¿s favorite painter; European aristocrats, actors and writers were also her patrons; and she was elected a member of the art academies in 10 cities. Trained by her father, the minor portraitist Louis Vigée, she joined Paris¿s Academy of Saint Luke at 19. Two years later she married Pierre Lebrun, an art dealer who helped her gain valuable access to the art world. Her talent soon came to the attention of the French queen, who in 1783 appointed her a member of Paris¿s prestigious Academie Royale. As one of only four female academicians, Vigée-Lebrun enjoyed a high artistic, social and political profile. But once the French Revolution came in 1789, she was forced to flee the country with her nine-year old daughter. During the next 12 years she painted portraits of the most celebrated residents of Rome, Vienna, St.Petersburg, Moscow and Berlin. After successful stays in England and Switzerland, Vigée-Lebrun returned to France in 1809 and wrote her memoirs when she was 80 years old. She produced more than 600 paintings, many of them now in the major museums of the world.