Elisabeth Louise Vigee-le Brun. Sigh. My mentor, my idol, my goddess, Marie Antoinette’s favorite portraitist. And although she lived in the 18th century, she still whispers in my ear.
Upon making my first acquaintance with Elisabeth at the Louvre eleven years ago, we’ve been fast friends ever since. There I was, meandering the rooms of the second floor of the Sully Wing, in total rapture drinking in such an embarrassment of riches only to be stopped dead in my tracks by the painting below, one of her many self portraits. Look at the sheer perfection of the composition, the exquisite color palette with its subtle passages, all the while expressing such expressive warmth.
And then, I saw this beautiful gem.
After that, I was hooked, happily undertaking pilgrimages to view her masterpieces whenever I was so fortunate -to the Kimball Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas,
The National Gallery in London,
The Uffizi,
A great site to view all of her work and learn everything Vigee -Lebrun is Batguano.com. (Why a site devoted to this amazing woman is referenced to bat droppings is beyond me, but what’s in a name, right?)
I appreciate beautiful colors wherever I may find them and as a color consultant, would love to help you with yours.
Elizabeth Brown 206-353-0454 eb-color.com
Posts
5 comments:
beautiful!
Composition expresses extreme mood and warmth.
Amazing how "photo" quality of today's technology peeked through.
The use of pigment during that time, specifically that time in history, red oxide was scarce and challenging to use. Reddish-brown and oranges were warm but similar to how we know these color.
So, true, amazing. And, "what's in a name?" = her remarkable talent.....
Beautiful post Elizabeth! I've always been enamoured with her work as well, but have never really 'studied up' on her...thank you for directing her my way once again...the 1789 portrait of her and child has always been one of my favorites, as are the Antoinette portraits, the details in them are always spectacular.
I feel artfully inspired anew now.
xo J~
Thanks for introducing me to her. Just breathtaking!
I am here to tell you that blog commenting is one of the most powerful traffic generation methods around. I believe blog commenting has taken over what traditional article marketing used to be.
Stock Commissions
Post a Comment