Object Image

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH, 2019

This exquisite portrait was painted in 1789 during the height of the French Revolution. It depicts Madame Perregaux, the wife of the banker Jean-Francois Perregaux. The painting is in exquisite state of preservation.

The painter, Élizabeth Louis Vigée married Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun in 1774, a descendant of Charles Le Brun, first director of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. She is perhaps best known for her close relationship with her patron Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France. Between 1783 and 1789 she painted the queen thirty times, and Marie Antoinette aided the artist’s acceptance into the Académie, making Vigée Le Brun one of first femal...

1789
Oil on oak panel
99.6 x 78.5cm
P457
Images and text © Wallace Collection, 2017

Where you'll find this

The Wallace Collection
Permanent collection