DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45257#0445
MADAME VIGEE LE BRUN 263
since nothing can surpass the grace and piquancy
of expression in her lovely countenance.
Greuze was in high favour with the Royal
Family, and it is believed that he painted a portrait
of the Dauphin at the Tuileries after the unfortunate
flight to Varennes, and another of his elder sister,
Madame Royale, when in the Temple. The great
upheaval of the Revolution struck Greuze also, and
as a painter he became no longer the fashion. His
wife squandered his fortune and he died in poverty,
slaving to the very last.
The portraits at Chantilly of Marie Antoinette
(in 1795) and of Madame de Pompadour, two of
the loveliest women of their day, are by Drouais, a
pupil of Van Loo and Boucher. The happy days
of Trianon were not yet over when these were
painted, and the Dauphine of France, presented
here as Hebe, seems to be at the height of her glory
and charms. How different to the careworn and
haggard woman whose portrait hangs in the Musee
Carnevalet over the very bed occupied by her in the
Temple before her execution !
Madame Vig^e Le Brun carried the style of
Greuze, at one time her master, into the middle of
the nineteenth century. She is represented in the
Musee Conde (Cabinet Clouet) by several small
portraits : Marie Caroline, Queen of Naples,
painted in 1768, and her two daughters, Marie
Thercse Caroline, wife of Francis II Emperor of
Austria, and Marie Louise Josephine, wife of the
Grand Duke of Tuscany. Whilst the first two of
since nothing can surpass the grace and piquancy
of expression in her lovely countenance.
Greuze was in high favour with the Royal
Family, and it is believed that he painted a portrait
of the Dauphin at the Tuileries after the unfortunate
flight to Varennes, and another of his elder sister,
Madame Royale, when in the Temple. The great
upheaval of the Revolution struck Greuze also, and
as a painter he became no longer the fashion. His
wife squandered his fortune and he died in poverty,
slaving to the very last.
The portraits at Chantilly of Marie Antoinette
(in 1795) and of Madame de Pompadour, two of
the loveliest women of their day, are by Drouais, a
pupil of Van Loo and Boucher. The happy days
of Trianon were not yet over when these were
painted, and the Dauphine of France, presented
here as Hebe, seems to be at the height of her glory
and charms. How different to the careworn and
haggard woman whose portrait hangs in the Musee
Carnevalet over the very bed occupied by her in the
Temple before her execution !
Madame Vig^e Le Brun carried the style of
Greuze, at one time her master, into the middle of
the nineteenth century. She is represented in the
Musee Conde (Cabinet Clouet) by several small
portraits : Marie Caroline, Queen of Naples,
painted in 1768, and her two daughters, Marie
Thercse Caroline, wife of Francis II Emperor of
Austria, and Marie Louise Josephine, wife of the
Grand Duke of Tuscany. Whilst the first two of