Portrait de Sophia Fries en Sappho

This 1793 portrait of Sophia Fries as Sappho at Jaroměřice Castle depicts a noblewoman in the guise of the ancient Greek poetess, reflecting Vigée Le Brun’s taste for mythological and literary portraiture. The identification with Sappho flattered the sitter’s cultural accomplishments while allowing artistic freedom in costume and pose. Vigée Le Brun was the most technically accomplished and socially successful woman painter of the eighteenth century, achieving membership of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1783 and a clientele that extended from the French royal family to the courts of Russia, Austria, and Italy during her decade of exile following the Revolution. Her portrait manner combined the neoclassical formal values of her training with a quality of feminine intimacy and emotional warmth that made her portraits of women and children especially celebrated. Her ability to make her sitters appear simultaneously dignified and approachable was the technical foundation of her social success.

The classical costume of flowing drapery and the lyre attribute create a theatrical composition. Vigée Le Brun’s fluid handling of translucent fabrics demonstrates her mastery of textile rendering in the service of mythological allegory.