Joseph Vernet

Vigée Le Brun painted Joseph Vernet around 1778, depicting the famous French marine painter who had been her father's close friend and her own early mentor. The portrait is an act of professional homage as well as personal affection: the marine painter at approximately seventy years old is depicted with the directness and warmth of a close personal relationship, the psychological intimacy going beyond the formal dignity of the typical commissioned portrait. Vigée Le Brun's portrait of her mentor documents a significant relationship in her professional formation and gives us a vivid likeness of one of the most important French painters of the eighteenth century.

Vigée Le Brun renders Vernet with warmth and respect, using a restrained palette appropriate to the elderly artist's dignity. The careful characterization and natural handling of light demonstrate her early portrait skills before her mature style fully developed.