THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from Getty Research Institute https://archive.org/details/madamevigeelebruOOunse V ‘I ( MASTERS IN ART ^■^rte^jffllusitratttijltpnostap^ Among the artists to be considered during the current, 1905, Volume may be mentioned Fra Filippo Lippi, Sir Henry Rae- burn, Jan Steen, Claude Lorrain, and Chardin, The numbers of ‘ Masters in Art ' which have already appeared in 1905 are : Part 61, J ANUAR Y Part 6z, FEBRUARY PART63, MARCH WATTS . PALMA VECCHIO MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN PART 64, THE ISSUE FOR april WILL TREAT OF iW^antegna NUMBERS ISSUED IN PREVIOUS VOLUMES OF ‘MASTERS IN ART’ VOL. 1. VOL. 2. Part i.- Pakt z.’ Part 3.- Part 4.- Part 5.- Part 6.- Part 7.- Part 8.- Part 9.- Part 10.- Part II.- Part 12.- -VAN DYCK -TITIAN -VELASQUEZ -HOLBEIN -BOTTICELLI -REMBRANDT -REYNOLDS -MILLET -GIO. BELLINI -MURILLO -HALS -RAPHAEL * Sculpture Part 13.- Pakt 14.- Paut 15.- Part 16.- Pakt 17.- Part 18.- Pakt 19.- Part 20.- Pakt 21.- PART 22 .- Part 23.- Part 24.- •fPain -RUBENS -DA VINCI -DURER •MICHELANGELO* -MICHELANGELO! -COROT -BURNE-JONES -TER BORCH -DELLA ROBBIA -DEL SARTO -GAINSBOROUGH -CORREGGIO ting VOL. 3. VOL. 4. Paktzj. — PHIDIAS Part 37. — ROMNEY Part 26.— PERUGINO Part 38.— FRA ANGELICO Part 27. — HOLBEIN § Part 39. — WATTEAU Part 28.— TINTORETTO Part 40.— RAPHAEL* Part 29. — P. deHOOCH Part 41. — DONATELLO Part 30.— NATTIER Part 42.— GERARD DOU Part 31.— PAUL POTTER Part 43.— CARPACCIO Part 32.— GIOTTO Part 44.— ROSA BONHEUR Part 33.— PR AXITELES Part 4;.— GUIDO RENI Part 34. — HOGARTH Part 46. — P. deCHAVANNES Part 35.— TURNER Part 47.— GIORGIONE Part 36.— LUINI Part 48.— ROSSETTI § Drawing! * Frticol VOL. 5. Part 49, Part 50, Part 51, Part 52, Part 53, Part 54, Part 55, Part 56, Part 57, Part 58, Part 59, Part 60, JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER FRA BARTOLOMMEO GREUZE . DURER’S ENGRAVINGS LOTTO . LANDSEER VERMEER OF DELFT . PINTORICCHIO THE BROTHERS VAN EYCK MEISSONIER BARYE . VERONESE COPLEY ALL THE ABOVE NAMED ISSUES ARE CONSTANTLY KEPT IN STOCK Prices on and after January i, 1905 : Single numbers of back volumes, 20 cents each. Single numbers of the current 1905 volume, 1 5 cents each. Bound volumes i, 2, 3, 4, and 5, contain- ing the parts 1 isted above, bound in brov/n buckram, with gilt stamps and gilt top, $3.75 each; in green half-morocco, gill stamps and gill top, $4.25 each. MANUFACTURED IN ilMOGESi SINCE 1783 F or more than a century, has been distinguished by its artistic shapes and beautiful decorations. Unlike most fine porcelains, it has a hard body and lead- less glaze, which cannot be cut with the knife. For sale at the better shops MARKS OH decorated on white J.R ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥ V¥¥¥¥¥V m^\ Sare admirable for gifts or • the adornment of your “foYm ■walls. Recognized rby artists as the best art Ireproductlons made in I America. 60 cts. to $20.00. ' fAt art stores, or sent on approval. ILLUSTRATED} rCATALOQUE (200 illustrations) sent upon receipts Lof 25 cents (stamps), which may be deducted from, Ipurchase of the Prints. CURTIS & CAMERON,! J 23 Pierce Bnilding, 0pp. Public Library, BOSTON} ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥1 UNIVERSITY TRAVEL “A THING APART” Some of our specialties : 20 Minor Italian Cities (Tour Ti) ; French Chateaux and Riviera (Tour 14); Spain and Sicily (Tour 39) . Above all, OUR GREEK CRUISE A month in the land and seas of the Greek world from Sicily to Constantinople. Distinguished archa?ologisls and lecturers in charge. Send for our “ Outline of University Tours.” BUREAU OF UNIVERSITY TRAVEL 201 CLARENDON STREET, BOSTON In answering advertisements, please mention Mastf.rs in Art MASTERS IN ART MENNEN’S borated talcum LETTERS and LETTERING A n Illustrated Treatise, by Frank Cho- TEAtr Brown, containing 210 exam- ples. A complete and varied collection of Alphabets of Standard and Modern Forms, so arranged as to be most practically and con- veniently useful to ALL who have to draw letter-forms. Every Designer should at least know just what this book is. Our illustrated folder gives full information, and a postal card is all it costs. “LETTERS AND LETTERING” measures x inches^ contains 234 pages, and is substantially bound in cloth. Price, post-paid . . $3.00 BATES & GUILD CO. 42 CHAUNCY ST., BOSTON, MASS. Cupid Tinds His Strongest Ally “A box of dainties now and then is relished by both maids and men.” — Cupid, Chocolates and / Confections ^ Instantaneous Chocolate 1316 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Made instantly with boiling milk. Sold everywhere. In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art MASTEBS IX AKT PLATE I PHOTOGRAPH er 8RAUN, CLEMENT 4. CIE [« 7 ] VJGEE LE BBUX' 3JOBTBAIT OF MADAME MOLE-B A V MOXD LOU VBK, PABIS MASTEHS IX AUT PLATE II 8V 8RAUN, CLEMENT 4 C1E [so J PHOTOQRi VIGEE LE miUN MAKIP] AXTOrXET'JE AXJ) 1II:K CHrLJJKEX PALACE OF VEKSAILLKS MASTILRS IX AKT PLATE III PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT A CIE [oi] VIGEE LE BPUX POKTKAIT OF THE COMTE IJE VAUmiEtliri PKIVATE COLLECTIOX, PAHIS MASTEBS IX ABT PLATE TV APH BY BRAUN, CL^WENT A CIE [93] PmOTOQRi TIGEE LE BKUX MADAME VJGEE LE 3UJ PEATK VII lIuent & CIE VIGEE LE J3RUX PORTRAIT OF THE MARQUISE BE JACCOURT mvXEB JiY tup: MAJ{QUIS be .TAUCOURT, PARIS MASTEKS IX ART APH BY BRAUN, [lov] PHOTOGR- PT.ATE VIII CL^MeNT A CIE VIGEE LE 33RUX PORTRAIT OF MARIE AXTOTXETTE PARAGE OF VERSAILLES MASTKRS IX AKT PLATE IX PMOTOOBArH BY BRAUN, CL^yENT A CIE [ 103] VIGEE EE UKEN POHTEAIT OF STANISLAUS AUGUSTUS PONIATOWSKI LOUVHE, PAKIS H ^ ft a q O ft ft ft S ASTE-RS Ij>f AKT PLATE X PHOTOGRAPH at BRAUN, CLEMENT & ClE [ 103 ] POHTRAIT OF MADAME TIGER EE BRUX BT HERSEEF ACADKMT OF ST. ELTJ£E, ROME Madame Vigee Le Brun painted at least twenty portraits of herself. The one here reproduced was executed in Rome in 1789 or 1790 for the Academy of St. Luke in that city, of which she was elected a member. The artist was then about thirty-four years old. [. 1 . 0 ( 3 ] MASTERS IN ART JWlar(t'2lotti!5it=iSUsatiett| TiQtt He i^vun KNOWN AS TiQtt %t i$nin BORN 1755: DIED 1842 FRENCH SCHOOL M ARIE-LOUISE-ELISABETH VIGEE, better known under her mar- ried name of Le Brun, and generally spoken of as Madame Vigee Le Brun, was born in Paris on April i6, 1755. Her father, Louis Vigee, was a pastel painter of moderate talent, devoted to his art and always ready to com- mend and encourage his daughter’s talent. In those ‘Souvenirs’ in which Madame Vigee Le Brun has recorded the incidents of her life, she tells us that her love for painting had already declared Itself when, as a child of six, she was sent to a convent school, where she was in constant disgrace with her teachers because she decorated her copy-books and those of her schoolmates, and even the walls of the dormitory, with faces and landscapes in colored chalks. On one occasion, when at home on a holiday, she drew by lamplight a vigorous little sketch of the head of a man, which so delighted her father that he ex- claimed, “You will be a painter, my child, if ever there was one!” These words Elisabeth Vigee never forgot, and that childish drawing, made when she was but seven or eight years old, was cherished by her as long as she lived. When she was eleven Elisabeth’s education was considered complete. To her great delight she then left school for good, and returned to her home, “overjoyed,” she writes, “at not having to leave my parents again.” The atmosphere of the household was artistic and the child had every opportunity to indulge her natural tastes. The painter Doyen, an intimate friend of her father’s, helped her in her efforts to draw, and Davesne, a professor at the Academy of St. Luke, asked to be allowed to give her lessons. The lessons do not seem to have amounted to much, for beyond a few suggestions as to setting her palette Elisabeth was allowed to follow her own devices. These were happy days for the little girl; she spent many hours in her father’s studio experimenting to her heart’s content with his crayons, and duti- fully accompanied her mother, who, we are told, was “good to the point of [ 107 ] 24 MASTERS IN ART austerity,” to high mass and to evening prayer. She took pride in the clever- ness of her brother, three years younger than herself, and assures us with naive frankness that he was much prettier than she. Indeed, at that time Elisabeth, from her own account, was far from beautiful; her eyes, she says, were deep- set, her face was pale and thin, and, moreover, she was growing so fast that she could not hold herself erect. All this was a trial to her mother, who showed a marked preference for her younger child, whom she spoiled with indulgences, whereas with Elisabeth she was strict and even severe. The father’s love and devotion, however, were unremitting, and in return Elisabeth lavished upon him the tenderest affec- tion. Her grief, therefore, was great when, in May, 1768, her father died. She was then thirteen years old. “So heartbroken was I,” she writes, “that it was long before I felt equal to taking up my pencil again. Doyen used to come to see us sometimes, and as he had been my father’s best friend his visits were a comfort. It was he who urged me to resume the occupation I loved, and in which, to tell the truth, I found the only consolation for my grief.” In order to distract her daughter’s mind from the sorrowful thoughts upon which the girl constantly dwelt, Madame Vigee used to take her to the Luxem- bourg Palace to see Rubens’s works, then in a gallery there, and to various private collections of pictures where specimens of the old masters were ex- hibited. “As soon as I entered one of these galleries,” she writes, “I imme- diately became just like a bee, so eagerly did I gather in knowledge that would be of use to me in my art, and so intoxicated with bliss was I in studying these works of the great painters.” It was at this time that Elisabeth began to paint from nature. Several por- traits, in pastels and in oils, were accomplished, and to improve herself she copied some of Rubens’s, Rembrandt’s, and Van Dj'^ck’s pictures, and several heads of young girls by Greuze which she thought offered a good lesson in flesh-painting. She was already beginning to be noticeable for the beauty which was one of her charms in after-years, and was even now a source of gratification to her mother, who saw with pride the plain, pale-faced child developing into a fair and blooming young woman. Her progress in art was rapid, she was already talked about to some extent, and her name became known to various painters prominent in that day, among whom was Joseph Vernet. He gave her cordial encouragement and earnestly advised her to follow no school system, but to study only the works of the great Italian and Flemish masters, and, above all, to turn to nature — “the first and best of all teachers.” This counsel, Elisabeth says, she faithfully followed, and was never indebted to any one master for her instruction. Success came to her very early in life, and at fifteen she was already earning so much money as a portrait-painter that she contributed largely to the sup- port of the family, left penniless at her father’s death. But with all her coura- geous efforts it was difficult to meet the household expenses and to defray the cost of clothing and schooling for her brother, and before very long Madame Vigee, prompted thereto, it may be, by a wish to assist her daughter in her struggles to support the family, decided to marry a rich jeweler. Monsieur Le [ 108 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 25 Sevre by name, who, however, soon proved himself so penurious that his wife and stepchildren found themselves reduced to the bare necessities of life, al- though Elisabeth handed over to him everything she earned by her brush. Joseph Vernet and other friends, indignant at the manner in which she was thus defrauded, begged her to grant merely an allowance to her parents and to keep the rest of her earnings for herself; but fear lest her mother should be made to suffer for any such action deterred her from adopting this measure. At this time Elisabeth’s home in Paris was in the rue Saint-Honore opposite the terrace of the Palais Royal, which her windows overlooked. In the garden of the palace she frequently saw the Duchesse de Chartres walking with her ladies-in-waiting, and before long the young girl discovered that she herself was in her turn, and with the kindliest interest, observed by tbe duchess, who finally sent for her and asked her to paint her portrait, recommending her also to many of the court ladies, who forthwith visited the studio in the rue Saint- Honore and commissioned Elisabeth to paint their portraits. No doubt the youth and beauty of the artist did much towards making her the fashion she now became, and as she was charming in manner as well as fair of face, and was, moreover, gifted with a quick and ready wit, many of the gay young courtiers who became her sitters openly expressed their admiration, somewhat to her annoyance. “It may readily be supposed,” she writes, “that some ad- mirers of my face gave me commissions to paint theirs in the fond hope that they might in this way win my good graces; but I was so absorbed in my art that nothing could distract me from it, and as soon as I detected any inclina- tion on the part of the gentlemen who sat for me to make sheep’s eyes at me, I used to paint them looking in another direction, and then at the least move- ment of their pupils towards me I would cry, ‘Now I am doing the eyes!’ This was, of course, rather trying to them, and my mother, who was always present, used to laugh quietly to herself.” These were busy days for the young artist, who found her brush in such de- mand that she could with difficulty execute the commissions which poured in upon her. On Sundays and saints’ days she allowed herself a little rest, and on those occasions, after hearing high mass, she tells how her mother and step- father would take her to walk in the beautiful gardens of the Palais Royal, where the fashionable world, arrayed m its best, was wont to disport itself, and where her beauty attracted much attention. At that time the opera-house was close to the palace, and at half past eight on summer evenings, when the per- formance was over, every one adjourned to the gardens, where singing and in- strumental music were continued until the small hours of the morning. Paris was light-hearted and careless in those years preceding the terrible Revo- lution of 1789, so soon to break forth in all its horrors, but so little suspected then by the frivolous world of fashion. From the time she was fifteen, Elisabeth was much sought after in the most distinguished society. Princes and dukes showed her marked favor; all the celebrated artists were numbered among her acquaintances, as well as men of letters and those who had attained celebrity on the stage. But none of the social functions at which she was made welcome could induce her to neglect her work; in that her interest continued unabated. [ 109 ] 26 MASTERS IN ART In the autumn of 1774, when she was nineteen, she was elected a member of the Academy of St. Luke. Soon after this she became acquainted with Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, a well-known picture dealer who was looked upon in that day as one of the first connoisseurs of paintings in Europe. He showed conspicuous attention to the young girl, inviting her to visit his rare collection of works of the old masters, and lending her many of his most pre- cious specimens in order that she might copy them. At the end of six months he asked for her hand in marriage, and Elisabeth, although far from wishing to become his wife, was persuaded after much indecision and many misgivings to accept his offer, led thereto by the urgent desire of her mother, and still more induced by her own longing to escape from the misery of living with her stepfather. “But so little did I feel inclined to sacrifice my liberty,” she writes, “that even on the way to church I kept saying to myself; ‘Shall I say “yes,” or shall I say “no”.?’ Alas,” she adds, “I said ‘yes,’ and thereby merely exchanged present troubles for others.” In short, Le Brun, a man many years older than she, although agreeable enough in manner, proved a spendthrift and a dissipated gambler, who, having made way with his own fortune, felt no scruples in spending all the earnings of his young wife, whom he seems to have married in order to obtain an easy means of support. At his request the marriage was for some time kept se- cret, and many friends of the bride’s, unaware that the event had been con- summated, took occasion to warn her against a step which they well knew would cause her nothing but unhappiness. Alas, that these warnings should have come too late! Elisabeth Vigee was already Madame Le Brun, and only too soon did she learn for herself that the misery predicted for her by her friends was indeed hers. Fortunately, absorption in her art and a nat- urally buoyant disposition enabled her to bear her lot. At the desire of her husband that their income should be increased she now consented to give lessons in painting, but this expenditure of her time and strength was so distasteful to her that she soon abandoned it for her beloved portrait-painting. “The number of portraits I painted at this time,” she says, “was really prodigious.” As the f^ashionable painteu of the day Madame Le Brun’s name was in every one’s mouth, and verse as well as prose was employed to eulogize her talents and her personal charms. Once when she was present at a meeting of the French Academy on the occasion of La Harpe’s discourse on the talents of women, the poet, when he came to the somewhat extravagant words; “Le Brun, the model and the painter of beauty, A modern Rosalba, but more brilliant than she. Unites the voice of Favart with the smile of Venus,” turned towards the object of his praise, and at once the audience, including the Duchesse de Chartres and the King of Sweden, rose to their feet, and, turning in her direction, applauded her with enthusiasm, so that she was al- most overcome with confusion.” [ 110 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 27 But all these pleasures of gratified vanity were, she assures us, as nothing compared with the joy she felt when in 1780 her child was born- — -the little girl, Jeanne-Julie-Louise, whom she has represented in more than one of her pictures clasped in her own loving embrace. In 1779 Madame Vigee Le Brun painted the first of her many portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette, whose favorite painter she became and with whom she was always on a footing of affectionate intimacy. At the first sitting, it is true, the artist was somewhat intimidated by tbe imposing air of the queen, but this impression was soon dissipated by Marie Antoinette’s graciousness, and we are told of the duets that were sung by the royal model and the painter at the close of the morning seance, for the queen dearly loved music and Madame Le Brun had a charming voice. One day illness prevented Madame Le Brun from keeping her appointment at the palace, and when on the following morning she went to Versailles to make her apologies, she was coldly received by one of the chamberlains, who reminded her that the previous day had been that appointed for the sitting, and that as the queen was then about to go out to drive be was sure nothing could be arranged for that day. When admitted to the royal presence, how- ever, she found the queen far more ready than the chamberlain to excuse her remissness. Upon learning that Madame Le Brun had been ill, and had come then only to offer apologies and to receive further commands, she begged the artist not to go, revoked the order for her carriage, and willingly gave Madame Le Brun a sitting. “I remember,” says the painter, ‘‘that in my confusion, and my eagerness to make a suitable reply to all this kindness, I picked up my paint-box so excitedly that it upset, and all my brushes and crayons were spilled upon the floor! As I stooped to pick them up the queen said, ‘Never mind, never mind,’ and in spite of anything that I could say, she gathered them all up herself.” In addition to her portraits of the queen, Madame Le Brun painted those of all the royal family, with the exception of that of the Comte d’Artois. While at work upon the one of “Monsieur,” brother of the king and after- wards Louis XVIII., she has told us that the prince, whose conversation was always witty and entertaining, liked to vary the sittings by singing songs which were not so pleasing as his talk, and were rendered less so by a voice by no means true. “ How do you think I sing ? ” he asked one day. “ Like a prince, your Highness,” was tbe quick reply. In 1782 Madame Le Brun accompanied her husband upon a business trip into Belgium and Holland. She writes enthusiastically of all that she saw m the way of art in those countries, and was so struck by tbe beauty of Rubens’s picture ‘Le chapeau de paille’ (The Straw Hat), then in Antwerp, that she at once painted a portrait of herself in a similar style. The picture, which, like its prototype, is now in the National Gallery, London, added considerably to her reputation, and was the occasion, upon her return to Paris, of her being proposed by Joseph Vernet as a member of the Royal Academy of Painting. This honor was conferred upon Madame Le Brun in 1783, and for her re- [ 111 ] 28 MASTERS I N ART ception picture she painted ‘ Peace bringing Plenty’ (plate x). As a mem- ber of the Academy she was now accorded the privilege of exhibiting her works at the Salon, a privilege which in those days belonged exclusively to academicians. Madame Le Brun lived at this time in the rue de Clery, Paris, where her husband occupied large and richly furnished rooms in which he kept his valu- able collection of pictures; she herself was relegated to a small anteroom and a simply furnished bedroom which served also for her drawing-room. There she received her numerous visitors, and gave her famous evening parties to which all were so eager to come that the little room was frequently crowded to overflowing; even marshals of France, she says, were obliged to sit on the floor for want of chairs! Great musicians furnished the music on these occa- sions, and famous actors took part in the impromptu charades given for the entertainment of the guests. At ten o’clock a simple supper was served, and at midnight the company dispersed. On one memorable occasion a repast after the manner of the ancient Greeks was devised, the idea for the entertain- ment being suggested to the hostess by her brother’s reading of ‘Anacharsis,’ in which a Grecian dinner is minutely described. The cook was at once sum- moned and instructed how to prepare the viands, the ladies hastily arrayed themselves in Greek costumes, the materials for which were furnished by the studio belongings of Madame Le Brun, similar costumes were improvised for the men, Etruscan pottery was borrowed from one of the guests, hanging lamps were appropriately arranged, and at half past nine all was in readiness to surprise two late comers, the Comte de Vaudreuil and Monsieur Boutin, who upon entering the room found the assembled company grouped around the table singing Gluck’s chorus, ‘The God of Paphos,’ and whose astonishment and enthusiasm knew no bounds. Reports of this novel entertainment spread all over Paris, and accounts of what was denounced as Madame Le Brun’s lavish expenditure were grossly exaggerated. Twenty thousand francs, it was said, had been spent upon this famous Greek supper; from twenty thousand the sum grew to forty, then to sixty, and finally to eighty thousand. “ In reality,” writes Madame Le Brun, “the supper had occasioned an outlay of somewhat less than fifteen francs ” (three dollars). It will be seen from this that Madame Le Brun was not without enemies, who, jealous of her beauty and success, not only accused her of extravagance, but circulated reports detrimental to her fame and honor, coupling her name with that of Monsieur de Calonne, the minister of finance, whose portrait she had painted and from whom, they falsely asserted, she sometimes received sums of money large enough to ruin the treasury of France. It was even said that the fine house recently built by Monsieur Le Brun in the rue du Gros- Chenet had been paid for by the minister. Such calumnies were deeply distressing to Madame Le Brun. As a matter of fact, her indifference to the luxuries attainable by money was marked. Her dress, she tells us, was of the simplest; except on state occasions she was habit- ually attired in white muslin or lawn dresses, and as the money she earned [ 112 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 29 was invariably appropriated by her husband, it often transpired that she had no more than six francs which she could call her own. Her ‘Souvenirs’ record a number of visits which she paid to various cha- teaux in the neighborhood of Paris, her hosts being the Prince de Conde, the Due d’Orleans, the Comte de Vaudreuil, the Due de Nivernais, Madame du Barry, and many other equally noted personages. While staying at Louve- ciennes, where Madame du Barry lived, unmistakable signs of the approach- ing Revolution made themselves felt. The news from Paris became more and more alarming, and when Madame Le Brun, filled with forebodings, returned to her new home in the rue Gros-Chenet she was subjected to repeated insults from the populace, daily becoming more desperate and unruly. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, horrified by tbe deeds of vio- lence enacted daily about her, and terrified for the safety of herself and her child, she resolved to leave France and seek refuge in Italy, where she could pursue her art unmolested. Accordingly, at midnight of the fifth of October of that ill-omened year, having disguised herself in the rough garb of a working woman, she and her little daughter, accompanied by a governess, set off in the public coach, were safely conveyed beyond the French border, and, after passing through Switzerland, arrived in Italy. There the journey be- came almost a triumphal progress; everywhere the artist went the most flatter- ing welcome was accorded her; at Bologna she was elected a member of the Academy of that place, at Florence she was asked to contribute her own por- trait to the collection of artists’ portraits in the Uflizi Gallery, and at Rome, where she was made a member of the Academy, the academicians presented her with the palette of the young French painter Drouais, who had lately died, and begged that in exchange she would allow them to have some of the brushes with which she was accustomed to work. The most distinguished society of Rome opened its doors to her and the most eminent people made her welcome. At the end of a sojourn of nearly eight months in Rome she went to Naples, where again she was the recipient of marked attentions from people high in favor at court, and where during her six months’ stay she painted portraits of members of the royal family and of many well-known people, among them the beautiful Lady Hamilton, whose husband was at that time British ambas- sador at Naples. After leaving Naples, a short stop was made in Rome before traveling to Perugia, Florence, Siena, Parma, Mantua, and finally to Venice, where she spent some time before going on to Verona, Milan, and Turin. From there she had planned to return to France, but upon learning of the grievous events which had taken place in Paris, and finding Turin filled with French refugees who had been driven from their country, the idea of returning home was re- linquished and Vienna was decided upon instead. In that city Madame Le Brun passed two years and a half, receiving flat- tering attention wherever she went, entering into the gay social life of the Aus- trian capital, and busying herself with her painting. Her stay there was sad- dened by the news received from Paris of the tragic fate of Louis xvi. and of Marie Antoinette, as well as of many of her friends and acquaintances who [ 113 ] 30 MASTERS IN ART had met death on the scaffold. Return to France was now not to be thought of, and, desirous of adding to the fortune she had already acquired during her absence, Madame Le Brun decided to go to Russia, where she had many friends. Passing through Prague, Dresden, and Berlin, she finally reached St. Petersburg towards the end of July, 1795. No reception could have been more gratifying than that accorded her upon her arrival in the Russian capital. A call from Count Esterhazy, the French ambassador, preceded her presen- tation to the Empress Catherine ii., who received her with gracious kindness and ever after bestowed upon her marks of favor and regard. Dinners and balls and entertainments of every description in the gay city of St. Petersburg followed each other in quick succession, until one wonders in reading the vivid account given in the ‘ Souvenirs ’ how time could have been found for the numerous portraits which Madame Le Brun executed while in Russia. The one she was to have painted of Catherine ii. was never accom- plished, owing to the death of the Empress in 1796, but of the Empress Maria, wife of Catherirre’s son and successor, Paul i., she painted in the following year a full-length portrait, and innumerable titled people, men and women, sat before her easel. Finally, the honors shown her were crowned by her elec- tion as a member of the Academy of Arts. In the midst of her gay and brilliant career in Russia one sorrow darkened her life; that was the marriage of her dearly loved daughter, then seventeen years old. Wilful by nature and spoiled by her mother’s blind and idolizing affection, the young girl had set her heart upon accepting the offer of marriage made her by a certain Monsieur Nigris, secretary to Count Czernicheff, a man twice her age, and one of whom her mother knew enough to feel con- vinced that no happiness could accrue from such a union. Her veto, however, was withheld provided Monsieur Le Brun would give his consent, and until such time as a letter from him could be received the daughter wounded her mother by her coldness and suspicions. The marriage finally took place; and to Madame Le Brun’s grief, what had seemed to be genuine feeling on the part of the young bride proved a mere passing infatuation, which at the ex- piration of a fortnight came to an end. Heart-sick and broken in health by her anxiety, Madame Le Brun resolved to leave St. Petersburg, and in October, 1800, she took up her residence in Moscow, where she spent five months. At the end of that period she had grown so sad and ailing that notwithstanding the entreaties of her friends and the many orders for portraits, sufficient in number to keep her occupied for many months to come, she made up her mind to return to her own country. Accordingly she journeyed back to St. Petersburg, then in a tumult of excite- ment over the assassination of the emperor, Paul i., bade adieu to the daughter who was still estranged from her, took leave of her many friends, and, having had a farewell audience of the new emperor, Alexander i., and his empress, who begged her to reconsider and remain in Russia, where they promised that everything possible should be done to restore her health, Madame Le Brun, touched though she was by so much kindness, reluctantly left the land where many happy years had been spent. [ 114 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 31 During a short stop in Berlin she met with the utmost consideration from Queen Luise of Prussia, who welcomed her at Potsdam and of whom she made two portraits in pastel. Before her departure from Berlin she was in- formed by the director of the Academy of Painting there that she had been chosen a member of that body. In the summer of i8oi Madame Le Brun reached Paris, after an absence of twelve years. Her husband still occupied the house in the rue Gros-Chenet, and on the occasion of his wife’s return, elaborate preparations were there made to receive her. The staircase was lined with flowers, costly hangings of green and gold decorated her bedroom, and a crown of gold stars was placed over the bed. She seems to have been in nowayunappreciative of these demon- strations, although she remarks, not without a touch of bitterness, that she her- self was obliged to pay for them with her own earnings. Paris had undergone many changes during these twelve years. Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul now held sway at the Palace of the Tuileries, and such festivities as were given there seemed to Madame Le Brun dull and conventional compared with those she remembered in the days of the old regime. “The whole city, too,” she writes, “presented a far less lively ap- pearance.” But for Madame Le Brun herself, pretty and charming as she still was at forty-six, the same gay and social life which she had before enjoyed, and was accustomed to lead wherever she might be, was at once resumed. All who were left of her old friends flocked about her, and on the first occasion of her appearance in a concert-hall where the Parisian world was assembled, every one turned in her direction when she entered and heartily applauded the pop- ular artist, even the musicians rapping on their violins with their bows. The following year Madame Le Brun made a journey to England, a coun- try she had long wished to see. Arrived in London, she was the object of much attention from the prominent people of the day, among them the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. As usual, her brush was in demand and her working time was quickly filled. Some jealousy seems to have been aroused among the English artists when it was learned that she had been commissioned to paint the Prince of Wales (afterwards George iv.). Her stay in England, which had been intended to last but a few months, had continued for nearly three years when news reached her that her daughter had arrived in Paris. She at once returned home, but her joy in again seeing her child seems sadly enough to have been in no way reciprocated by that daughter, who obstinately refused to live with her mother and insisted upon associating with companions whom Madame Le Brun could not admit to her house. Only one more journey of any length is recorded in the ‘Souvenirs.’ This was to Switzerland in 1808-9, where she painted a number of landscapes, and at Coppet made a portrait of Madame de Stael. It was after her Swiss tour that, “ having at length acquired,” she says, “ an inclination for rest,” she pur- chased a country seat at Louveciennes, near Paris, which became, as her house in Paris had been, the center of a highly cultivated and brilliant circle. [ 115 ] 32 MASTERS IN ART Especially was this the case when, after the Napoleonic rule, the Bourbons under Louis xviii. came once more into power. In 1813 Monsieur Le Brun died — an event which seems to have caused his wife genuine grief in spite of the trials to which he had subjected her during their years of married life. “This blow, however,” she admits, “was far less than the cruel grief experienced at the death of my daughter. All the wrong- doings of the poor little thing were blotted out,” she says; “I saw her as in the days of her childhood — as I still see her. Alas! she was so young! Why did she not outlive me .?” This was in 1819. In the following year Madame Le Brun’s brother also died, and thus the last of her near ties was severed. She herself lived on until she had grown to be an old woman. To the end she took pleasure in the gay and social side of life, to the end she worked at her beloved art. Her time was divided between her apartment in the rue Saint-Lazare in Paris and her sum- mer home at Louveciennes. Two nieces, Madame de Riviere, the daughter of her brother, and Eugenie Le Brun, afterwards Madame Tripier Le Franc, a niece of Monsieur Le Brun, were devoted in their care of her. On March 30, 1842, Madame Vigee Le Brun died very peacefully, in Paris, at the age of eighty-seven. According to her wish she was buried in the cem- etery at Louveciennes. C1)E art of Wiget ilt 3Srun. ANDRE MICHEL JOUIN’S ‘ C H E F S - D ’ CE U V R E ’ I N the history of portrait-painting in France there is a period between Nat- tier and Gerard which may he said to belong to that charming woman Madame Vigee Le Brun. Boucher, who had indeed fallen completely from popular favor, was dead, the nymphs and goddesses of Nattier had taken flight to their faded bowers and desolated groves, and in those last years of what is known as the “old regime” the fashionable world of Paris adopted for its painter Elisabeth Vigee, who had already won fame for herself under that name when, by an unfortunate marriage, she became Madame Le Brun. There was so close, so intimate, a connection between this painter and her models that although she lived well into the nineteenth century, dying as re- cently as 1842, she yet remains in the history of French art the portrait-painter par excellence of the court of Marie Antoinette. When, upon the approach of the Revolution, she fled from France, terrified by the first distant rumblings of that reign of terror, it may be said that her work had virtually been accom- plished; for her best, her really significant, portraits all belong to her early years. If we would catch in an attitude or in a look the moral reflection, so to speak of an epoch, if we would read the thoughts or divine the dreams harbored un- der the elaborate head-dresses of the great ladies of that day, or would guess [ 116 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 33 the secrets of those hearts, sometimes full of tenderness, again light and flip- pant, concealed beneath transparent muslin fichus, it is to the works of Madame Vigee Le Brun that we must turn for answers to our queries. The extraordinary vogue which the painter enjoyed in her lifetime has to some extent continued, so that her fame is distinct and lasting, but it would assuredly be but a doubtful tribute to her memory were her graceful figure to be placed upon any very lofty pedestal, and there made to assume any sort of imperious or magisterial attitude. Moreover, to apply the word “ masterpiece ” to any work of hers would be to make too free a use of a word the full signifi- cance of which has been somewhat weakened by the indiscriminate way in which eloquent chroniclers have applied it. Madame Le Brun would be the first to admonish us not to speak of her in any way but simply, and without undue abuse of superlatives. To the artist herself it was a constant source of regret that because of the overwhelming number of orders for portraits which she received, in a word, by reason of her very success, she was debarred from devoting her talents to great “historical painting.” Fortunately for her, however, as well as for us, she remained a portrait-painter and a woman. Her aspirations for the “grand style” did not carry her away so far as to do violence to her natural bent, nor to change in any way the limpid purity of her gentle and graceful talent. Full of tender sentiment, as was in accordance with the prevailing taste of the age in which she lived, she yet never descended to silly sentimentality or flat in- sipidity. “I always tried so far as it lay in my power,” she writes in her ‘Sou- venirs,’ “to give to the women whom I painted characteristic attitudes and ex- pressions; those who had no special individuality I painted in nonchalantly pensive positions.” In the advice which she gives in regard to the painting of portraits she says: “ Before beginning a portrait, engage your model in con- versation, try several different poses, and finally select not only the most com- fortable and natural, but the one that best suits his or her age and character; for all that helps to make the likeness better. When your sitter is a woman,” she naively adds, “you should compliment her; tell her that she is beautiful; that her complexion is lovely, etc. This puts her into a good humor, and en- ables her to pose for you with more pleasure.” . . . The charm and beauty with which in her secret desire to please her models Madame Le Brun invests her pictures is naturally apparent also in her por- traits of herself. She was very pretty, and in her old age she used to recall with an amused sort of complacency the days when a crowd would gather round her in the street or at the theater, and when more than one admirer of her beauty would go to her to have his portrait painted, “in the hope of suc- ceeding in pleasing her.” Neither in her art nor in her nature was there anything morbid about Madame Le Brun. If we examine the portrait which she has left us of her- self and her daughter we shall find something more than light-hearted hap- piness in her delicate face; beneath and beyond all that there are the marks of courage. Life did not spare her its sorrows — sorrows that were keenly felt. She was as unhappily married as a woman well could be, but she kept [ 117 ] 34 MASTERS IN ART intact that treasure of sweet temper and gay spirits which we see in her laugh- ing eyes. She was devoted to her art, painting, she tells us, “with fury;” and this ab- sorbing passion was a refuge and a consolation to her in her hours of tribula- tion. Moreover, notwithstanding her sorrows, she had a keen love of life and of society as it was understood and enjoyed in France before the terrible year of 1789, and in spite of her hours of sadness and melancholy she delighted in her great success as a woman and an artist. — from the french CHARLES BLANC ‘HISTOIRE DES PEINTRES’ A ll the fairies gathered around the cradle of Elisabeth Vigee as at the ^ birth of a little princess in the kingdom of art. One endowed her with beauty, another with wit; the fairy Grace presented her with a pencil and a palette. It is true that the fairy Marriage, who had not been invited, told her that she was to wed Monsieur Le Brun, the connoisseur in pictures; but to comfort her the fairy Travel promised to guide her from court to court, from academy to academy, from Paris to Rome, to St. Petersburg and to London, with her gaiety, her talents, and her easel before which all the sovereigns” of Europe, as well as all those whom genius had crowned, should pose as sub- jects for her brush. . . . As a painter Madame Vigee Le Brun belongs wholly and distinctly to the eighteenth century; that is to say, to that period in the history of French art which was brought to an abrupt termination by the works of Louis David. So long as she followed the counsels of Joseph Vernqt her pencil evinced a certain suppleness and her brush a certain force; but unfortunately she too often sought — especially was this the case in her later works — to imitate Greuze, and weakened the likeness to her models by an exaggerated mistiness. She be- came the fashion so early in her life that she was debarred from any thorough study, and she was too frequently satisfied with a clever suggestiveness in her portraits. Without estimating her so leniently as she was in her own day estimated by the French Academy, we nevertheless must needs assign Madame Le Brun an honorable place in the history of painting in France; for, notwithstanding revo- lutions and reforms, she continued to pursue, as long as she lived, the dainty and delicate art of Watteau, of Nattier, and of Fragonard — an art at once graceful and intrinsically French. — from the french R. PINSET AND J. D’AURIAC ‘HISTOIRE DU PORTRAIT EN FRANCE’ M adame vigee le brun is one of the most charming painters of the French school. In their freshness, their life, and their spirit, her works are unsurpassed; and if they are open to criticism on account of a cer- tain feminine softness and delicacy, the flesh-tones, by way of compensation, are of undeniable excellence. Moreover, in all the accessories of her portraits, to say nothing of the attitudes of her models, her skill was admirable. She pos- sessed, too, one rare quality — a quality characteristic of only true artists — and that is universality; in other words, her portraits do not owe their beauty [ 118 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 3S to the fact that they belong to any one special period, or because they bear the imprint of any definite epoch, but they are and always will be beautiful be- cause of the universal truth they express. The great French Revolution of 1789 was destined to bring about changes, not only in manners and in laws, but also in art. A new class of people nat- urally demands a new style of painting. Above all, for the reformation, the regeneration, of a school with whose principles the new order of things finds fault, a painter is needed whose intrepid spirit shall prompt him to boldly break with the prevailing tastes and traditions of the day. After the Revolu- tion it was plain that a new school was about to come into being — all that was needed was a leader, and that leader was found in Louis David. The exquisite grace of Madame Vigee Le Brun was, therefore, the last expression of what may be called eighteenth-century painting in France. — from the french LOUIS BERNARD ‘ C H E F S - D ’ CE U V R E DE PEINTURE AU MUSEE DU LOUVRE’ M adame vigee le brun painted in the graceful and charming style of Watteau and of Fragonard, but with greater sobriety and with a note of sincerity that was exceptional in the eighteenth-century art of France. She could not, however, wholly escape those mannerisms character- istic of the century which gave her birth, and in some of her portraits we are conscious of a certain artificiality. All her life she vibrated, so to speak, be- tween the method of painting of Jean-Baptiste Regnault and that of Jean- Baptiste Greuze — borrowing from the one his ^uave and supple touch, his insipid manner of softening, and from the other the exaggerated roundness of his modeling. The vogue which Madame Le Brun acquired upon her first appearance,, and which she always retained, the adulation accorded her as a woman even more than as an artist, sadly interfered with all hard study in the rudiments of her profession, and caused her to rely for her success entirely upon her ex- ceeding facility. — from the french SOPHIA BEALE ‘PORTFOLIO’ 1891 W ITH regard to Madame Vigee Le Brun’s position as an artist, there is no doubt that the work left behind her proves her to have been equal to most of her contemporaries, and superior to many. Gros was more dramatic, Louis David had more force and vigor in his touch, and Prud’hon was im- measurably above her in his subject-pictures — a line in which Madame Le Brun never shone; but she is vastly superior in technique and bold handling to Hubert Robert or Gerard, and there is an elegance and grace about her portraits which is eminently womanly in the best sense of the word. Still, although her talent was considerable, she owed a great deal of her success to her personality and her industry, for she had the love of work and the per- severance without which even genius is of little use. . . . Madame Le Brun was not a great portraitist; but if not a Velasquez, a Rembrandt, or a Rubens, her work is elegant and refined, and possesses a charm which is not common. “She has neither the force nor the virility of [ 119 ] 36 MASTERS IN ART some of the great painters of France,” says her biographer, M. Charles Fillet, “but because of the exquisite delicacy of her touch she is one of the most aimahle painters of the French school.” Aimable — that little French word exactly expresses Madame Le Brun’s position in the great army of portrait- painters. Che l^orfes of ¥^igee 3Le Bruit DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES ‘PORTRAIT OF MADAME M O L E-R A Y M O N D ’ PLATE I T he Lady with the Muff,’ as this celebrated portrait of Madame Mole- Raymond, an actress of the ‘Comedie Fran^aise,’ is often called, is one of Madame Le Brun’s most popular works. The composition has sometimes been criticized for its lack of repose, but in the dash and breeziness of the graceful figure, apparently painted as in the act of running, there is an unde- niable charm. Madame Mole-Raymond, her hands hidden in a huge brown muff which she presses against her breast, wears a bluish-lavender dress and a blue apron. A broad-brimmed blue hat trimmed with a bow of ribbon and a feather is jauntily placed upon her elaborately curled hair, and around her neck is a white muslin fichu, with long ends crossed and tied at the back of her waist. “The painting,” writes Sir Charles Eastlake, “is admirable in execution, reminding one in certain qualities of Gainsborough, but more finished and even in impasto.” This picture was painted in 1786, exhibited at the Salon in the following year, and bequeathed in 1865, by Mademoiselle Maurice Raymond, a daugh- ter of the lady represented, to the Louvre, Paris, where it now hangs. The figure is life-sized, and the panel on which it is painted measures about three and a half feet high by two feet four inches wide. ‘MARIE ANTOINETTE AND HER CHILDREN’ PLATE II T he most celebrated portrait of Marie Antoinette is this large picture painted by Madame Vigee Le Brun in 1787, in which the queen is rep- resented with her children seated in the Palace of Versailles. She is dressed in a robe of red velvet trimmed with fur, and wears an elaborate toque of the same color decorated with ostrich plumes. The little Due de Normandie, then two years old, is on his mother’s lap; “Madame Royale” stands at the queen’s side tenderly clasping her arm, while on the right the Dauphin lifts the curtain of an empty cradle, generally supposed to be that of his younger brother, but which according to M. de Nolhac belonged to a little sister whose death occurred at about the time of the painting of this group. The picture was finished for the Salon of 1788, but the artist had many mis- givings as to its reception. The time was certainly unpropitious for the ex- [ 120 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 37 hibition of a portrait of Marie Antoinette, whose popularity was already on the wane, and who in the eyes of the populace was responsible for a large part of the misery of France. Madame Le Brun has related how even the frame of her large picture, having been sent to the Salon before the canvas, evoked a number of ill-natured remarks. “That ’s the way the money is spent,” people said. “Finally,” she writes, “I sent in my picture, but could not muster up courage to follow it and find out what its fate was to be, so fearful was I lest it should be badly received by the public. In fact I was fairly sick with fright. I shut myself in my room, and there I was praying the Lord for the success of my royal family when my brother and a host of friends burst in to tell me that my picture had met with universal approbation. “After the close of the Salon, the king had it taken to Versailles, and there M. d’Angivillers, then minister of the Fine Arts, and director of the royal es- tablishments, presented me to His Majesty, who was good enough to con- verse with me at some length, and to say that he was much pleased with my work. Then he added, looking again at my picture, ‘I do not know much about painting, but you make me love it! ’ “The picture was placed in one of the apartments at Versailles through which the queen always passed in going to and returning from mass. After the death of the Dauphin, early in 1789, the picture reminded her so vividly of her cruel loss that she could not look at it without weeping. She therefore ordered it to be removed, but with her usual thoughtful kindness she at once apprised me of her reason for doing so. It is, indeed, to the queen’s sensitive feeling that I owe the preservation of my picture, for had it been left where it was the bandits and fishwives who soon afterwards marched to Versailles in search of the king and queen would certainly have destroyed it.” After her return from Russia, Madame Le Brun relates how she went one morning to Versailles to see her picture. It had been banished to a corner of the palace, and was placed with its face against the wall. She was told that Napoleon, hearing that many people went to Versailles on purpose to see the painting, had given orders for its removal — orders which apparently were not strictly carried out, as the custodian continued to show the picture and by so doing had gained so much money that he refused to accept any gratuity from Madame Le Brun, declaring that owing to her he had already earned enough. This painting now hangs in the Palace of Versailles. It measures about eight feet long by seven feet wide. ‘PORTRAITOFTHECOMTEDEVAUDREUIL’ PLATEIII JOSEPH FRANCOIS DE PAULE, Comte de Vaudreuil, is described by Madame Le Brun, who knew him well, as distinguished in appearance, courteous, witty, and gifted with infinite tact. A lover and connoisseur of art, his wealth enabled him to indulge his taste for the works of the great mas- ters, of which he possessed a valuable collection. De Vaudreuil was high in favor at court and many honors were conferred upon him. He was made grand falconer, given command of the citadel of Lille, and created a member of the Order of the Holy Ghost — the highest [ 121 ] 38 MASTERS IN ART order of chivalry under the Bourbons. Upon the downfall of that house he sought refuge in England, but at the time of the Restoration returned to France, where he was made a peer of the realm and appointed governor of the Louvre, a position he held until his death in 1817. Madame Le Brun’s portrait of the Comte de Vaudreuil, here reproduced, shows him at the age of forty-four, when he was at the height of his power. He wears a richly embroidered coat, and across his breast the sky-blue watered ribbon, the cordon bleu, insignia of the Order of the Holy Ghost. The picture is in a private collection in Paris. ‘MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN AND HER DAUGHTER’ PLATE IV T he most popular, and in many respects the most beautiful, of Madame Le Brun’s numerous portraits of herself is this picture, now in the Louvre. It was first exhibited at the Salon of 1789, and was presented by the artist to Monsieur d’Angivillers, minister of the Fine Arts. Madame Le Brun has here represented herself in a gown of white muslin with a red scarf tied around her waist. Her brown hair, arranged in curls in front and knotted on the top of her head, is bound with a band of red ribbon, and a green mantle is draped about the lower part of her figure. Her little daughter, whom she clasps in her embrace, and who in turn has thrown her arm about her mother’s neck, is dressed in blue. “In this picture,” writes M. Charles Fillet, “Madame Le Brun’s face is expressive of happiness and maternal pride. The arm placed about her child is delicately and skilfully modeled, and its roundness is admirably shown against the slightly bluish tone of her white muslin gown. The sprightly air of the little girl, and the manner in which she presses closely against her mother in quick response to the loving embrace, are exquisitely natural. The general tone of the painting is harmonious, and the picture is one of Madame LeBrun’s finest achievements in portraiture.” The panel measures a little over four feet high by about three feet wide. ‘PORTRAITOFHUBERTROBERT’ PLATEV T his portrait of the French landscape-painter Hubert Robert was painted in 1788, the year before Madame Le Brun left Paris for Italy. He is rep- resented with one hand resting on a stone parapet, while in the other he holds his palette and brushes. His coat is lavender, with a collar of red velvet, his waistcoat is yellow, and a white neck-cloth is carelessly tied about his throat. M. Charles Pillet commends the naturalness of the pose and the simplicity of the composition. “The manner in which it is painted,” he writes, “is supple, the touch broad and free; the contrasts are well rendered and the colors har- monious. The portrait belongs to the best period of Madame Le Brun’s art, and has none of that hardness sometimes perceptible in her later works.” Hubert Robert was born in 1733. He was therefore fifty-five years of age when Madame Le Brun painted this portrait. “Of all the artists of my ac- quaintance,” she says, “Hubert Robert was by far the most versatile. Fond of every kind of pleasure, not excepting that of the table, he was always in such [ 122 ] VIGEE LE BRUN 39 demand that I do not believe he dined at home three times a year. Theaters, balls, dinners, concerts, garden-parties — he went everywhere that he was in- vited, and spent all the time that was not occupied with his painting in amusing himself. He was witty, well informed without being in the least pedantic, al- ways in good spirits, and the most amiable man imaginable.” Robert’s vogue as a painter was in his lifetime very great. His facility was amazing; it was said that he could paint a picture as quickly as he could write a letter. As a consequence his works, some twenty of which are now in the Louvre, are very numerous. ‘PORTRAIT OF MADAME VIGEE LEBRUN’ PLATE \ I W HEN in Florence in 1789, Madame Vigee Le Brun was asked to paint a portrait of herself for the collection of artists’ portraits in the Uffizi Gallery in that city. Her promise to comply wdth this request, an honor she duly appreciated, was fulfilled soon after her arrival in Rome, where her first work was the well-known portrait here reproduced. Madame Le Brun, who was then thirty-four years old, has represented her- self as seated before an easel, palette and brushes in hand, engaged in tracing in white chalk upon her canvas the features of Queen Marie Antoinette. The artist’s dress is black, and she wears a red sash falling in long ends behind. The portrait is painted on canvas, and measures three feet three inches high by two feet eight inches wide. It is in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. ‘PORTRAIT OFTHE MARQUISE DEJAUCOURT’ PLATE VII N O subject could have been more congenial to Madame Le Brun’s grace- ful brush than was the beautiful Marquise de Jaucourt whom the artist has here represented dressed in a simple muslin gown with a lace-edged fichu about her shoulders and a ribbon sash tied around her waist. Her broad- brimmed hat, trimmed with loops of ribbon, is slightly tilted upon her dark curls, which enframe a delicately modeled face with large brown eyes and a charmingly childlike expression. Perhaps no other portrait by Madame Le Brun better exemplifies her taste in costume, and skill in posing her model. It offers an instance of what Lady Dilke has called her “ingenious eye-catching arrangements, which,” that critic says, “gave to her clever pencil a charm that induces us to pardon the somewhat superficial character of her intelligence and her art.” The picture is owned by the Marquis de Jaucourt, Paris. ‘PORTRAITOFMARIEANTOINETTE’ PLATE VIII M adame vigee le brun painted between twenty and thirty por- traits of Marie Antoinette, of which one of the most charming is this picture in the Palace of Versailles, where the queen is represented in a garden tying up a bouquet of flowers. Her dress is of gray taffeta trimmed with delicate lace, she wears a hat of gauze decorated with ostrich plumes, while around her throat and wrists are strings of pearls. Madame Le Brun describes Marie Antoinette as “tall and with a fine fig- 1123 ] 40 MASTERS IN ART ure.” “Her arms,” she says, “were superb, her hands small and perfectly formed, and her feet charming. She had the best walk of any woman in France, carrying her head erect and with a dignity that stamped her queen in the midst of her whole court; and yet this majestic mien in no wise diminished the sweet- ness and gentleness of her expression. Her features were not regular; she had inherited the long and narrow oval peculiar to the Austrian race; her eyes, almost blue in color, were rather small; her nose was delicate and pretty, and her mouth not too large, although her lips were somewhat thick. But the most remarkable thing about her face was her brilliant complexion. I have never seen any so dazzling. ” There is every reason to believe that all Madame Le Brun’s portraits of Marie Antoinette were decidedly flattering as likenesses, so that although, as M. de Nolhac has said, they will always remain the most charming present- ments of that queen, they are by no means the most truthful. The picture here reproduced measures about three and a half feet long by nearly three feet wide. ‘PORTRAIT OF STANISLAUS AUGUSTUS PONIATOWSKI’ PLATE IX A MONO Madame Le Brun’s distinguished friends in Russia was Stanis- laus Augustus Poniatowski, the last king of Poland, who, after the down- fall of his kingdom, took up his residence in St. Petersburg, where he lived as a private gentleman. Kindly by nature, courteous and considerate, a delight- ful conversationalist and a charming and most genial host, he was beloved by all who knew him. As to his personal appearance, “he was,” writes Madame Le Brun, “very tall and handsome. His face expressed gentleness and affa- bility; his carriage was erect; his bearing dignified; and he was wholly without affectation. His kindness was most unusual. I remember an instance that makes me feel ashamed of myself whenever I think of it. When I am painting I refuse to see any one in the world except my model — a custom which has more than once caused me to be very rude to people who have Interrupted me in my work. One morning, just as I was finishing a portrait, I heard the noise of horses at my door, and instantly guessed that it was the King of Poland who had come to see me; but I was so interested in my work that I lost my temper and cried out as he opened the door, ‘ I am not at home! ’ Without a word the king put his cloak on again and went away. When I had laid down my palette, and in cold blood thought over what I had done, I was so repentant that that same evening I betook myself to the house of the King of Poland to apologize, and to beg forgiveness. ‘What a reception you gave me this morning!’ he ex- claimed as soon as he saw me, and then immediately added, ‘I understand perfectly how trying it must be to a busy artist to be interrupted while at work, and you may rest assured that I am not in the least angry with you.’ He then insisted on my remaining to supper, and no further allusion was made to my misbehavior.” Of the two portraits which Madame Le Brun painted of Poland’s last king, the earlier, now in the Louvre, Paris, is reproduced in plate ix. His hair is powdered and he wears a mantle of red velvet richly trimmed with ermine. [ 124 ] VIGEE LE BRU N 41 The painting has a distinction and a greater force and brilliancy than are usually to be found in the artist’s work. The oval canvas measures about three feet three inches high by two feet eight inches wide. O ‘PEACEBRINGINGPLENTY’ PLATE. X ‘ TJEACE bringing Plenty’ was painted by Madame Le Brun for her recep- X tion picture, when, in May, 1783, she was made a member of the Erench Academy of Painting. It was exhibited at the Salon in that same year and is now in the Louvre, Paris. ‘Plenty,’ her blond hair decorated with flowers and sheaves of wheat, and holding a cornucopia filled with fruit, was painted from Mademoiselle Lucie Hall, daughter of a Swedish miniature-painter then resident in Paris, while Mademoiselle Adele, her sister, was the model for ‘ Peace,’ with a crown of laurel in her dark locks and a branch of the same symbolic tree in her hand. The composition is wholly in accordance with the art traditions of that pe- riod, and while possessing a certain grace is inferior to most of Madame Le Brun’s work in portraiture. The canvas measures about three and a half feet high by four feet three inches wide. A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PAINTINGS BY MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS M adame VIGEE le brun painted at least six hundred and sixty portraits, fif- teen subject-pictures, and about two hundred landscapes. A chronological, though not an altogether complete, list of her works will be found in the last volume of her ‘Sou- venirs.’ The greater number of her works are in private possession. The following list includes the most important of the com])aratively few examples of her art contained in col- lections accessible to the public. E ngland. London, National Gallery; Portrait of Madame Vigee Le Brun — London, Wallace Collection; Portrait of a Boy; Portrait of Madame Perregaux — FRANCE. Chantilly, Conde Museum; Portrait of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria; Portrait of Marie Caroline, Queen of Naples; Portrait of Marie Louise Joseph- ine, Queen of Etruria — Montpellier, Museum ; Portrait of Princess Marie of Russia — Paris, Czartoryski Gallery: Portrait of Princess Isabella Czartoryski — Paris, Louvre: Peace Bringing Plenty (Plate x); Madame Vigee Le Brun and her Daughter (Plate iv); Portrait of Paesiello; Portrait of Hubert Robert (Plate v) ; Portrait of Joseph Vernet; Portrait of Madame Mole-Raymond (Plate i); Madame Vigee Le Brun and her Daughter; Portrait of Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (Plate ix) — Rouen, Museum; Portrait of Madame Grassini — Toulouse, Museum: Portrait of Madame de Crussol — Versailles, Palace: Marie Antoinette and her Children (Plate 11); The Dauphin and Madame Royale; Portrait of Marie Antoinette (Plate viii); Portrait of Marie Antoinette with a Book; Portrait of Marie Antoinette with a Rose; Portrait of the Duchesse d’ Orleans; Portrait of the Queen of Naples with her Daughter; Portrait of Gretry; Portrait of Jean de la Bruyere; Portrait of Andre Hercule de Fleury — Versailles, Petit Trianon: Portrait of Marie Antoinette with a Rose — ITALY. Bologna Gallery: Portrait of Mademoiselle Le Brun — Florence, Uffizi Gallery: Portrait of Madame Vigee Le Brun (Plate vi) — Rome, Academy of St. Luke: Portrait of Madame Vigee Le Brun (Page 22) — RUSSIA. St. Petersburg, Gallery of Prince Youssoupoff: Madame Catalini Singing — SPAIN. Madrid, The Prado: Portrait of Marie Caroline, Queen of Naples; Portrait of Princess Christine of Naples. [ 12 .-.] 42 MASTERS IN ART l^tgee 3Srun BStijliograplip A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES DEALING WITH MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN T he chief source of information concerning Madame Vigee Le Brun is her ‘ Souvenirs,’ first published in Paris in 1835-37. Several English translations of this entertaining book have appeared from time to time. B ernard, L. chefs-d’oeuvre de peinture au Musee du Louvre. Paris, 1878 — Blanc, C. Histoire des peintres de toutes les ecoles: ecole fran9aise. Paris, 1865 — Clements, C. E. Women in the Fine Arts. Boston, 1904 — Dayot, A. L’lmage de la femme. [Paris] 1899 — Durozoir, C. Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (in Michaud’s Biographie universelle). Paris, i843-[i865] — Ellet, E. F. Women Artists in all Ages and Countries. London, i860 — Fidiere, O. Les Femmes artistes a I’Acad- emie Royale de peinture et de sculpture. Paris, 1885 — Gosselin, T. Histoire anec- dotique des salons de peinture depuis 1673. Paris, 1881 — Gruyer, F. A. La Peinture au Chateau de Chantilly. Paris, 1898 — Gghl, E. C. Die Frauen in der Kunst- geschichte. Berlin, 1858 — Kingsley, R. G. A History of French Art. London, 1899 — Larousse, P. a. Marie-Anne-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (in Grand dictionnaire universel). Paris, 1866-90 — Le Brun, J.B. P. Precis historique de la vie citoyenne Le Brun, peintre. Paris [1794] — Le Brun, Madame L. E. Souvenirs de ma vie. Paris, *^3S'37 — Mantz, P. Madame Vigee-Lebrun (in Armengaud’s Les Reines du monde). Paris, 1862 — Merson, O. La Peinture frangaise au XVID siecle et au XVIII'. Paris, [1900] — Michel, A. Madame Vigee Le Brun (in Jouin’s Chefs-d’oeuvre). Paris, 1895 — Muther, R. History of Modern Painting. New York, 1896 — Nolhac, P. de. Marie Antoinette et ses enfants (in Jouin’s Chefs-d’oeuvre). Paris, 1897-98 — Nolhac. P. DE AND Perate, A. Le Musee National de Versailles. Paris, 1896 — Pillet, C Madame Vigee-Le Brun. Paris [1890] — Pinset, R., and d’Auriac, J. Histoire du portrait en France. Paris, 1884 — Proces-verbaux de I’Academie Royale de peinture et de sculpture. Vol. 9. Paris, 1889 — Roberts, M. Women of the Last Days of Old France. London, 1872 — Selden, C. Portraits de femmes. Paris, 1877 — Stranahan, C. H. A History of French Painting. New York, 1888 — Tallentyre, S. G. The Women of the Salons. London, 1901 — Vachon, M. La Femme dans Part. Paris,i893. magazine articles A rgosy, 1896: Isabella Fyvie Mayoj A Genius and a Beauty — Munsey’s Maga- ^ZINE, 1897: Anonymous; Famous Portrait Painters — Portfolio, 1891: Sophia Beale; Elizabeth Louise Vigee-Le Brun. [ 126 ] MASTERS IN ART XIV LESSONS Guided by a Topic Book. ^ 1 'HE cultivated American should become A acquainted with the art of his own country. This can be done in your own home, satisfac- torily and practically, by joining €luti WITH TOPIC BOOK No. VI. Subject of first lesson: “Artistic Resources of Our Country.” This alone is worth knowing. ILLUSTRATIONS 40 selected Raphael Prints, 4x5, outline the course. 6 dozen 4x5 Raphael Prints give further light. 16 dozen miniature size add further examples of beauty. Send for leaflet of Raphael Prints and illustra- ted Booklet of The Traveler’s Art Club, free. The GREAT PICTURE LIGHT FRINK’S PORTABLE PICTURE REFLECTORS For electric light, meet all requirements V for lighting pictures. Every owner of 1 fine paintings could use one or more of & 1 these portable reflectors to advantage. M 1 The fact that so many have ordered II \ these outfits for their friends is proof ■ 1 that their merits are appreciated. H 1 Height, closed, 51 inches ; extended, 81 ■ 1 inches. The light from the reflector can ■ 1 be directed at any picture in the room 1 1 and at any angle. ■ Frink’sPortablePictureReflector ^ with Telescope Standard I||V No. 7034, brass, polished or antique, with plug and socket for electric ■ lamp $27.50 1 No. 7035, black iron, with plug and 1 socket for electric lamp . . $16.50 B These special Reflectors are used by H all the picture-dealers in New York, and H by private collectors not only in this n country, but in Paris, London, Berlin, uiTT^Tin other cities. When ordering, kindly mention the system of electricity used. Satisfaction guaranteed. Parties order- ing these Reflectors need not hesitate Nos. 7034, 7035 to return them at our expense if not Pat. Dec. 14, ’97 found satisfactory. THE CHAFFEE STUDIO I Hancock Street, Worcester, Mass. I. P. FRINK, 551 Pearl St., New York City GEO. FRINK SPENCER, Manager Telephone, 860 Franklin BRAUN’S CARBON PRINTS Lakewood ^yimong the pines of fifeto Jersey A Fashionable Spring Resort 90 Minutes from New Y 0 r K “IKeached by the New Jersey Central FINEST AND MOST DURABLE IMPORTED WORKS OF ART ^NE HUNDRED THOUSAND direct '■-^reproductions from the original paintings and drawings by old and modern masters in the galleries of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Dres- den, Florence, Haarlem, Hague, London, Ma- drid, Milan, Paris, St. Petersburg, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Windsor, and others. Special Terms to Schools. BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO. ! 249 Fifth Avenue, comer 28th Street NEW YORK CITY 1 Its palatial hotels are famed for their perfect cvisinc & its sports include all popular pastimes Descriptive book will be sent upon application to C. M. BURT, Gen. Pass. Agt., New York In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art MASTERS IN ART Two Books for The Home Builder American Country Houses A LARGE special number of The Architectural Review published primarily for those who intend building artistic homes and wish to study a collection of the best examples of recent domestic architecture. To this number about fifty leading Amer- ican architects have each contributed plans, photographs, and a description of one house, selected for its artistic and individual character. There are articles on The Changing Styles of Country Houses, by Robt. D. Andrews, English Country Houses, by H. Langford Warren, Professor of Architecture at Harvard University, L’Art Nouveau, by C. Howard Walker, and Plastered Houses, by Claude Layette Bragdon. The number is beautifully printed and contains over 350 illustrations. “ The Architectural Review has been consistently the best architectural periodical in the country, drawing its material from the designs of men of the highest standing in the profession, and recording in its text and plates the steady improvement in its architecture. “ It has itself done much towards this improvement by the high character it has maintained in the face of many difficulties, often at the sacrifice of profits.” — N. T. Evening Post. 1 12 pages, II X 14 in., paper covers, $2.00; green buckram, gold lettering, $3.00 Special Circular on Request American Gardens I TALIAN and English gardens have been well illustrated in numerous publications, but American garden-owners have found with disappointment that the suggestions these foreign examples could offer for garden design in this country were limited, since many of their greatest beauties were dependent upon the use of alien plants and trees and on surroundings which could not here be reproduced. It has become evident that the American garden must be an indigenous product; and to the solution of the problem many architects, as well as scores of non-professional garden -lovers, have set themselves with results that will be a delightful astonishment to those who do not know what has been accomplished. With the aim of making these examples accessible, all the most excellent American private gardens, old (Colonial) and new, have been especially phdtographed, and re- produced in this book. It contains 227 charming illustrations, showing in detail 61 gardens, together with plans of 46 of the most notable examples. “ For the sake of this publication the country has been carefully searched for its finest gardens. Excellent photographs of these, well reproduced, give a most lucid idea of the present state of garden design among us.” — The Nation, New York. “ guite apart from the beauty of the volume, and our pride in finding so much to admire in the work of American designers of gardens, there are valuable lessons to be drawn from it by all who have, or hope to have, gardens of their own.” — Boston Transcript. 240 pages, gold and green buckram, cover by Mr. Henry McCarter, $7.50 net BATES & GUILD COMPANY 42 Chauncy Street, Boston, Mass. In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art MASTERS IN ART In every home reached by M ASTERS IN Art there ought to be some one enough interested in music to want Masters in Music In plan and scope it is identical with Masters IN Art. No musical publication has ever re- ceived more unqualified praise from the critics, and none has a stronger hold on those who appreciate the best in music. Like Masters IN Art, the accumulating file of numbers forms a reference library of permanent value and unfailing interest. CQ secures 36 numbers, comprising 1,152. pages newly engraved, beautifully printed classical music, 576 pages of reading-matter, most carefully pre- pared, and 36 frontispiece portraits. CQ sent now, and #1.00 a month tor six " months, secures the set, 26 parts being de- month for livered on receipt of the first payment. BATES & GUILD CO. BOSTON f^enctl By CHARLES HERBERT WOODBURY Facsimile reproductions, full size of the originals, printed on cream tinted paper, I I X 1 4 inches, and suitable for framing. The Boston Transcript says : — No one equals Mr. Woodbury in his knowl- edge of how to use with best effect the soft lead-pencil ; his sketches are full of color, of tone, of light 5 they are thoroughly artistic, and nothing that we have seen lately ap- proaches them for quality. Set of Twelve, sent flat . . $3.00 BATES & GUILD CO. 42 CHAUNCY ST., BOSTON. HALF- MOROCCO BINDING BINDINGS FOR MASTERS IN ART S ubscribers are urged to have their yearly volumes bound, as no handsomer set of volumes are ob- tainable for anything like the price these cost. We bind in two styles — a green half-morocco, with green and gold marbled paper sides, gold tooling and gilt top, and a brown art buckram, with gold design, side and back, and gilt top. Price for Binding Subscribers’ Copies Half-Morocco, $2.00 Cloth, $1.50 The separate numbers must be sent to us postage or ex- press prepaid, and plainly marked with the sender’s name. We prepay express in returning the bound volumes. Bates & Guild Company, Boston, Mass. In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art MASTERS IN ART “It Has Taught me all that a Teacher Could Have Taught, — Howto Begin Right, How to Avoid Difficulties, and the ‘ Tricks of the Trade.’ ” BralDtng CHARLES D. MAGINNIS NLY practice will make an accomplished pen-draughtsman ; but this little treatise teaches whatever can be taught of the artj namely, how to practise, what “style” is, and how to attain it, what pens, inks, and papers have been found most serviceable, how to use line and hatch, how to produce textures and to represent various surfaces, values and colors, how to depict and treat de- tails, — in a word, imparts a knowledge of all the ways, means, and processes that experience has proved useful. The key-note of the book is practicality. Each of the 72 illustrations is a specific example of some important method. It is written interestingly and clearly. With this treatise at his elbow the draughtsman can make most valuable use of his spare minutes. Price, $1.00, Postpaid The Book Measures 72x5 inches. Contains 130 Pages and 72 Illustrations, Is Printed on Heavy Paper and Bound in Gray Cloth. FOURTH EDITION. llBates: Si ^lulo Company, |BubUs;t)prsi» 42 Cljaump Street, IlBosfton, spassi* MASTERS IN MUSIC i©I)at tlje Critical ^ap: The aristocrat of musical publications. — Times, Hamilton, Ont. The idea Is happily conceived and finely exe- cuted. — Musical Record and Review. It promises to be a tremendous help to all lovers and students of music. — ■ Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis. It is not too much to say that only words of praise are required to describe it. — The Presto, Chicago, 111. Without exception the finest publication of the kind that has ever come to our attention. — The Cadenza. ‘ Masters in Music This most excellent magazine should be in every music-lover’s library, for it is without doubt the best work of the kind yet established. — The Excel- sior, Omaha, Neb. Evidently designed to fill a want in musical ed- ucation. The venture should be appreciated, as the examples are progressive and well chosen. — Eagle, Brooklyn, N. Y. It is a unique musical publication, and every student of music will find it to be a condensation of all that is desirable to know concerning one of the great composers. — Sunday Courier, Buf- falo, N. Y. treats of the great composers as ‘ Masters in Art ’ does of the great painters and sculptors. It is $2.50 a year. Send for miniature issue and descriptive circulars. BATES GUILD COMPANY BOSTON, MA S S. 65443 In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art