Portrait of Madame de Staël as Corinne on Cape Misenum
Historical Context
Vigée Le Brun's Portrait of Madame de Staël as Corinne on Cape Misenum of 1808, depicting the most celebrated intellectual woman of the era in the pose of Gérard's famous painting, reflects the complex relationship between the two women. Both were famous beauties who had survived the Revolution; both published widely; both were exiles under Napoleon. Vigée Le Brun depicts de Staël with the bardic props of her fictional alter ego — the lyre, the Italian cape — asserting the identification between the author and her most celebrated heroine.
Technical Analysis
Vigée Le Brun renders the writer in dramatic theatrical costume against the Bay of Naples, combining portraiture with literary illustration. The warm Italian light and the flowing white drapery create a Romantic image of female artistic inspiration.
