The Duchesse de Polignac wearing a Straw Hat

This 1782 portrait of the Duchesse de Polignac in a straw hat at the Wadsworth Atheneum is one of Vigée Le Brun’s most celebrated works, depicting Marie Antoinette’s closest friend in the informal, naturalistic style that revolutionized French portraiture. The straw hat motif, inspired by Rubens’ Chapeau de Paille, became a hallmark of Vigée Le Brun’s innovative approach to aristocratic portraiture. 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 straw hat creates a frame for the face while allowing natural light to model the features. Vigée Le Brun’s looser, more spontaneous handling in this informal portrait contrasts with the formality of her official court commissions.