Portrait of the artist, bust-length

This 1794 self-portrait bust represents one of approximately forty self-portraits Vigée Le Brun created throughout her long career. Her self-portraits trace her journey from ambitious young Parisian artist through exile, international fame, and eventual return to France, serving as both personal documents and professional calling cards. 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 bust-length format focuses on the face with characteristic luminous flesh tones. Vigée Le Brun presents herself with the same flattering light and careful modeling she applied to her patrons, asserting her own elegance alongside her professional authority.