Madame du Barry

Vigée Le Brun's portrait of Madame du Barry from 1782 depicts the former royal favorite of Louis XV, who had been exiled from court after the king's death in 1774 and was living at Louveciennes in a style of elegant semi-retirement when this portrait was painted. The commission came early in Vigée Le Brun's career, just as she was establishing the reputation as the pre-eminent female portraitist in France that would culminate in her appointment as Marie Antoinette's preferred painter. Du Barry's easy manner and still-celebrated beauty gave Vigée Le Brun a cooperative and accomplished subject, and the portrait shows her characteristic approach: natural pose, warm atmospheric light, and the specific rendering of character within a flattering idealization. The sitter's execution by guillotine in 1793 gives the portrait retrospective poignancy — this elegant woman in her comfortable semi-exile had only eleven years to live.

Vigée Le Brun's oil-on-canvas technique achieves the luminous, fresh flesh tones that were her signature, with soft brushwork creating a naturalistic warmth. The informal pose and warm palette present the sitter with the unaffected grace that distinguished Vigée Le Brun from more formulaic portraitists.