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Louise Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
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is France's last great portraitist.
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The most famous in Europe.
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A child prodigy, taught by her father,
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she starts painting
professionally at the age of 14.
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Ambitious and independent, she gains access
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to the highest levels of power
by becoming portraitist
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to Queen Marie-Antoinette.
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Energetic and determined,
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she'll produce over 660 portraits.
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Because of her close ties
to the royal court,
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she's forced to flee into exile
during the French Revolution.
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This period of exile,
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which she imagined would last
only six months,
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will last 13 years,
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taking her to all
the royal courts of Europe.
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She'll live in Italy, Austria,
England and Russia.
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A friend of the rich and powerful
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and the greatest artists of her time,
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she'll be acclaimed in all the royal courts
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and art academies of Europe.
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Her destiny is that
of a talented and free woman
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who managed to combine success and fortune.
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She'll declare in her memoirs,
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“Before the revolution, women ruled...
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the revolution dethroned them.”
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“My very dear friend.
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You urge me so warmly
to write my memoirs for you...
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that I have decided to satisfy your desire.
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Support us and become VIP member
to remove all ads from www.OpenSubtitles.org
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Imagine what it will mean to my heart...
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to recall the various events
I have witnessed...
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and the friends who exist no more
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save in my thought!
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Nevertheless,
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the task will be an easy one,
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for my heart loves to remember...
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and in my hours of loneliness
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those dear departed friends
surround me still,
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so vivid do they appear to my imagination.”
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Louise Elisabeth Vigée
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was born in Paris in April 1755,
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a few months before Marie-Antoinette.
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18th Century France saw
the growth of a practice
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of major significance: wet-nursing.
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Middle class women,
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the wives of artisans and merchants
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send their children to neighboring villages
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in order to be free
to carry out their activities.
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Shortly after her birth,
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little Elisabeth
will be entrusted to a wet nurse
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in the Epernon region of Normandy.
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In 1761, her father Louis,
comes to take her home.
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Elisabeth, now aged 6,
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discovers a father she doesn't know
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and has to say goodbye
to her foster family.
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She'll spend a few weeks
in the family apartment
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in Paris, rue de Cléry,
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where she'll discover the day-to-day life
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of her parents, her brother Etienne,
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3 years younger than herself,
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and especially, her father's work.
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Her father was a pastel portraitist,
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a member of the Academy
of Saint Luke artists' guild.
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He was a man who sought out
the company of musicians,
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poets and wits.
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Court life
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and the growth of a wealthy
Parisian middle class
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account for the increasing
popularity of the portrait.
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Latour, Van Lo, Greuze or Drouais
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will be the fashionable masters
of this art.
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Everyone wanted their portrait painted,
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there was no other way
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to preserve your likeness...
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in that age.
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Pastels artist, Louis Vigée,
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whilst not having the genius
of the great masters,
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has acquired a fairly large clientele.
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Artists, nobles
and burghers all sit for him.
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“I mention these facts
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to show what an inborn passion for the art
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I possessed.
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My father, whose name was Vigée,
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made very good pastel drawings.
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He did some portraits
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which would have been worthy
of the famous Latour.
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But, coming back
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to the pleasures I enjoyed
in my childhood home,
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I must tell you that my father allowed me
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to paint several heads in pastels...
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and also...
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to dabble with his crayons all day.”
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Her father adored her, and...
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he would give her free reign
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when he would let her in his studio,
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take his pastel boxes and start drawing.
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Her father's very encouraging of her talent
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and one day, after seeing a drawing she did
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of a bearded man, exclaims,
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“You will be a painter, child,
if there ever was one!”
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After a few short weeks
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spent in the family home,
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Elisabeth is sent to boarding school
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at the Trinity Convent
in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
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At six years old, she's one
of its youngest pupils.
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While boys are educated in schools
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or through private tutors,
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girls from the upper and middle classes
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are mainly educated in convents.
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They are taught very little.
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Biblical history,
the basics of sewing and writing
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in order to prepare them
for their future roles
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as companionable wives and mothers.
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At the age of 11, she leaves the convent.
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Her father undertakes to train her
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and sends her to one of his friends,
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a painter called Davesne,
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who teaches her how to set a palette.
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These future artists
in painting, pastels or drawing,
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are going to meet other masters
during their youth.
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Madame Vigée-Lebrun will have
a lot of admiration
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for artists such as Jean-Baptiste Greuze
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and Joseph Verne.
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She'll observe them, question them,
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and listen to their advice
on how to improve.
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Elisabeth continues her apprenticeship
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but is soon going to lose
her first teacher.
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“I had just spent one happy year
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in my parents' house
when my father fell ill.
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My mother wept day and night.
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As for myself,
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I will not attempt to describe
my desolation.
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I was about to lose the best of fathers,
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my support, my guide,
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the one whose indulgence
encouraged my first attempts!”
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In order to distract her from her grief,
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her mother, Jeanne, takes her to see
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the private collections of masterpieces
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exhibited to the public,
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such as that of the Duke of Orleans,
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where Elisabeth gets to know
the great European painters
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and develops her taste.
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She had no real formal training
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she took courses here
and there, dabbled in...
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but you can't say
she's self-taught actually.
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At the age of twelve,
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in order to help her mother
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and pay for her young brother's schooling,
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Elisabeth is obliged to work.
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Her talent soon becomes noticed,
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in particular through two portraits,
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which reveal her precocious
artistic maturity.
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The portrait of her brother, Etienne,
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dressed as a schoolboy,
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which she's believed to have painted
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at the age of 14,
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and that of her mother, are so well-done
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that they're talked about in Paris.
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Commissions soon begin to flow in.
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A year after the death of her husband,
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Jeanne Maissin marries a rich jeweler,
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Jacques François Le Sèvre
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to whom Elisabeth
and Etienne are openly hostile.
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When the young girl starts
to receive payment
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for her first commissioned portraits,
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Le Sèvre considers
that this money belongs to him
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and he uses it for himself.
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Elisabeth rapidly builds up
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a large clientele of artists,
burghers and nobles.
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Her fees increase
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and she starts earning a lot of money.
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For the gentlemen models
who gaze at her too insistently,
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she devises a clever trick to
turn their eyes away from her.
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As for those gentlemen,
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as soon as I realized
they wished to make eyes at me
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I would paint them with their gaze averted,
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which prevents the sitter
from looking at the painter.
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At the least movement
of their pupils in my direction,
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I would say: "I am doing the eyes now."
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This would vex them a little,
as you can imagine,
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and my mother, who was always present
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and whom I had taken into my confidence,
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would laugh to herself.”
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In fact Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
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practically invents this masculine theme,
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that of the pre-romantic character
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gazing off into the distance,
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eyes raised up to heaven,
his thoughts elsewhere.
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In this way, she diverts the man's eyes
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and possible amorous intentions
away from her.
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So she shows intelligence there too,
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wiliness I'd say,
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in the way she deals with this situation.
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Despite her numerous commissions,
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Elisabeth finds time to enjoy
the favorite pastime
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of 18th Century Parisians,
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going out for a stroll.
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Nobles and gentry, artisans,
merchants and scamps
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pass each other by
in the Tuileries Gardens,
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in the squares of the Champs Elysées,
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in the Luxembourg and Palais Royal Gardens
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where Elisabeth and her family live.
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When out strolling, you have to 'see'
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and especially 'be seen'.
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Fashionable gathering places are created
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and last for a brief time,
such as the Coliseum.
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Located in one
of the Champs-Elysées squares,
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this amusement site,
illuminated by 2,000 candles,
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could hold 40,000 people.
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Its attractions included cafés, circuses,
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trinket and curiosity shops,
a show hall, a ball,
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and a fireworks display.
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During these strolls,
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Elisabeth attracts a lot of attention.
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It's at this time that two women,
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important for her future destiny,
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will cross her path.
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The Duchess of Chartres
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who you might say is her neighbor
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since she resides
in the Palais Royal gardens,
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will ask her to come and paint her portrait
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as well as that of her friends.
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The Duchess of Chartres,
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future Duchess of Orleans,
is a patron of the arts.
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It's she who'll introduce
the milliner and dress-maker,
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Rose Bertin, to Queen Marie-Antoinette.
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The second meeting that will prove decisive
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for Elisabeth's future success
will again take place
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during one of her strolls in a park.
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“We went to Marly-Le-Roi,
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and there I realized for the first time
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how enchanting a place could be.
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One morning I met the Queen
walking in the park
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with several ladies of her Court.
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They were all in white dresses and so young
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that they looked like an apparition.
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I was with my mother,
and was turning away to leave,
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when the Queen very kindly stopped me
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and invited me to continue in any direction
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I might prefer.”
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Marie-Antoinette had arrived
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in France in May 1770, at the age of 15,
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to marry Louis Auguste, Dauphin of France
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and grandson of Louis XV.
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During a firework display
held to celebrate the marriage,
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Place Louis XV,
future Place de la Concorde,
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is the scene of a dramatic incident.
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133 people are smothered
and trampled to death
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during a wave of panic caused by a fire
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set off by a falling rocket.
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An ominous omen,
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for it's on this very same site
that, 20 years later,
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the royal couple will be executed.
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Elisabeth and her family
escape the fire unharmed.
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Elisabeth's clientele
grows larger day by day.
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But she works as a free agent,
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outside any official institution.
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The Jurande,
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a body governing
professional incorporations,
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seizes her studio
261
00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:47,760
and obliges her to register her activity
262
00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:49,480
within a professional framework.
263
00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:52,480
In 18th Century France,
264
00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:55,120
it's obligatory to belong
to an artists' guild,
265
00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:56,480
and in Paris,
266
00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:58,320
this was the Academy of Saint Luke.
267
00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:01,680
So if you weren't a member
of the Academy of Saint Luke.
268
00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,680
You had to be a member of the Royal Academy
269
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:05,960
of Painting and Sculpture.
270
00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:09,520
This is why she applies to become a member
271
00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:11,120
of the Academy of Saint Luke,
272
00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:13,520
where she'll be enthusiastically accepted.
273
00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:18,000
In 1775, Jacques François Le Sèvre
274
00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:19,940
and his family move to an apartment
275
00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:22,400
in a big mansion house in rue de Cléry,
276
00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:24,660
almost directly opposite
the former apartment
277
00:13:24,680 --> 00:13:25,680
of Louis Vigée.
278
00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:31,560
Their apartment is
in a beautiful mansion house
279
00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:33,040
called the Lubert Mansion
280
00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:36,200
whose live-in owner
is Jean-Baptiste Pierre LeBrun.
281
00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:41,680
Jean-Baptiste is an ambitious young man
282
00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:43,400
who pursues a triple career
283
00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:45,960
as painter, art restorer and art dealer.
284
00:13:47,560 --> 00:13:50,160
His apartments are filled
with works of the old masters,
285
00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:52,720
which Elisabeth will study and copy.
286
00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:00,920
The best learning method
for aspiring female painters
287
00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:03,280
who'd already mastered the basics,
288
00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:06,800
was to copy the existing works of art.
289
00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:09,320
It's always been like that.
290
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,440
Jean-Baptiste is also the curator
291
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,520
of several large private art collections
292
00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:18,800
such as that of the Count of Vaudreuil.
293
00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,120
Joseph Hyacinthe de Vaudreuil
294
00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:23,680
is a nobleman at the court of Louis XVI.
295
00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:26,400
Peer of France, governor of the Louvre
296
00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:28,280
and member of the Academy of Fine Arts,
297
00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:30,000
he'll become one of the first
298
00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:31,720
collectors of Elisabeth's portraits.
299
00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:33,640
At the Lubert mansion,
300
00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,360
the young art dealer
soon succumbs to the charms
301
00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:38,480
of the talented and beautiful young woman.
302
00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:41,720
“I was then twenty years old.
303
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:44,440
I was living without anxiety
as to my future,
304
00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:46,320
since I was earning a good deal of money
305
00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:48,840
and thus felt no inclination for matrimony.
306
00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:51,740
But my mother, who believed Monsieur Lebrun
307
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:54,760
to be very rich, unceasingly urged me
308
00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:56,960
not to refuse such a profitable match
309
00:14:57,720 --> 00:14:59,520
and I at last consented to the marriage.”
310
00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:04,280
They both have an artistic sensitivity.
311
00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:09,920
They can discuss painting
and they're both very ambitious.
312
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:16,880
So it's this love of painting,
this ambition
313
00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:19,480
and a mutual attraction that will form
314
00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:20,800
the bond of their couple,
315
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,680
which will last, finally,
for quite a number of years.
316
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:31,160
Jean-Baptiste does business
317
00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:32,640
with the Dutch art dealers
318
00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:35,600
and he takes the young woman
with him on one of his trips
319
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:36,640
to Flanders.
320
00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:40,120
In Antwerp she discovers
the masterpieces of Rubens.
321
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,800
It's during this trip that
the great master's technique
322
00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:47,360
inspires her to do
a self-portrait on oak panel.
323
00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:53,360
The use of oil on wood gives the painting
324
00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:57,800
a glossy, almost enamel effect,
which is different to the effect
325
00:15:57,960 --> 00:15:59,480
produced by oil on canvas.
326
00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,120
The panels are remarkable
327
00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,920
for the transparency of the coloration,
328
00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:12,440
which is surely a rubensean effect,
329
00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:16,200
because it's very clear
that she was very, very much
330
00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:17,680
influenced by Rubens.
331
00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:23,120
She visits the Antwerp art dealer,
332
00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:25,600
Jean Michel Van Havre,
and discovers a portrait
333
00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:27,920
that's commonly known as 'The Straw Hat'.
334
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:33,440
It's actually a felt hat
335
00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:36,040
which enables an effect
of projected shadow,
336
00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:38,200
a play of light and shade,
337
00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:40,080
particularly on the face and forehead.
338
00:16:46,480 --> 00:16:49,600
She went back to France
and painted her self-portrait,
339
00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,480
which was one of the greatest pictures
340
00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:55,200
she ever painted.
And the first one on panel.
341
00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,320
And she learned, she acquired skill
342
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:02,760
and painted with blazers,
with colored blazers,
343
00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:05,480
and she's at the top of her form there.
344
00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:09,440
The painting is
so successful that Elisabeth,
345
00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:13,040
at the request of her clients,
reemploys the same accessories.
346
00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,400
The silk shawl edged in black lace
347
00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,560
and the hat creating
a gentle chiaroscuro effect,
348
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,200
can be found in several
of her other portraits.
349
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:24,920
She'll use them to cover Madame Du Barry,
350
00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:29,120
herself, Marie-Antoinette and many others.
351
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:36,760
It's amusing to see that from one portrait
352
00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:38,400
to another, Vigée-Le Brun,
353
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:40,360
once she's found a formula that works,
354
00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:43,920
will use this same costume,
these same accessories,
355
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:45,080
on different models.
356
00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:48,840
Although united through their shared love
357
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:50,480
for painting and their ambition,
358
00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:53,760
Elisabeth and Jean-Baptiste
live independent lives,
359
00:17:54,120 --> 00:17:57,120
and she'll describe her husband
as a dissipated gambler
360
00:17:57,160 --> 00:17:58,640
who squanders all her money.
361
00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:01,720
She speaks very badly of her husband
362
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,400
in her 'Memoirs', but I think her husband
363
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:06,280
was very useful to her in fact.
364
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,320
Not only by introducing her to
great works of art,
365
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,600
but also by his unfailing support of her.
366
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:15,600
Elisabeth nonetheless follows
367
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,800
Jean-Baptiste's advice
and sets up a painting atelier
368
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:19,840
for young ladies.
369
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:23,120
The young woman doesn't have
much authority over her students
370
00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:26,760
but transmits to them her love
of art and her technique.
371
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:30,080
Her 'Young Ladies' School',
as Madame Lebrun calls it,
372
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:31,880
will prove to be quite a success.
373
00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:35,840
She had a group of young women around her,
374
00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:38,280
who worked at her side and whom she taught.
375
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:41,800
And one of the exercises she had them do
376
00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:43,880
was 'the expressive head' study.
377
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:49,720
Not able to have
live models in her atelier,
378
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,280
Elisabeth gives her students
her own drawings
379
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:54,280
to copy as an exercise.
380
00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:00,080
These are drawings done in black chalk
381
00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:02,160
with white chalk highlights,
382
00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:06,400
and we can see that she works
as though she's using pastels,
383
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:08,920
that is, she stumps her lines,
384
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:10,960
probably with her fingertips.
385
00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,560
She smudges the black chalk
to model the face,
386
00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:19,780
to create this shading that brings out
387
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:21,200
the depth and volume.
388
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,600
And this is a very difficult exercise
389
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:31,080
that each of her students
has to learn how to do.
390
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:36,480
Shortly after opening her school,
391
00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:38,800
Elisabeth gives birth to her first child,
392
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:41,400
a little girl that she'll name Julie,
393
00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:43,520
soon nicknamed 'Brunette'.
394
00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:46,000
Added to the joy of being a mother
395
00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:49,000
is the satisfaction of becoming
a recognized artist
396
00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:51,720
whose fees are amongst
the highest of her time.
397
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:56,240
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun
398
00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:58,520
who knows the art market very well,
399
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:00,840
and who's an excellent businessman,
400
00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:02,600
knew what he was doing
401
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:05,040
when he set extremely high prices
402
00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:06,560
for his wife's paintings.
403
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:14,040
An arty was specializes in handling
404
00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:15,600
their artist...
405
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:20,640
in order to achieve
the best result financially.
406
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:26,120
But I have the impression
that Vigée-Lebrun was able to
407
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,040
achieve the result financially on her own.
408
00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:36,360
She's personable and talented enough
409
00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:39,160
to be able to establish
her own connections.
410
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:43,280
Little by little, she's going to succeed
411
00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:46,280
in making a name for herself
in the society of her time.
412
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:48,400
On the one hand through her talent,
413
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:50,760
and on the other, through her beauty.
414
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,000
She's a very graceful woman,
very bright and cultivated.
415
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:57,840
While heads may
turn to look at her in Paris,
416
00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:00,000
it's Elisabeth's conversation
417
00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:02,920
that particularly charms
her models during sittings.
418
00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:07,320
Another thing about painting portraits is
419
00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:10,720
that you have to be an intelligent person
420
00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:13,000
and a good conversationalist.
421
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:15,680
People hated sitting for portraits.
422
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:18,600
Members of the royal family
hated it the most
423
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:20,400
because they had to be painted the most.
424
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:22,880
They wanted to be entertained
when they sat.
425
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,080
Ambitious, her desire is to reach
426
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:27,640
the highest ranks of power
427
00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:30,720
and it's undoubtedly through
the Duchess of Chartres
428
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:33,200
that she gains access
to Queen Marie-Antoinette.
429
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:38,480
In 1778 she obtains official entrance
430
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:40,400
to the royal palace of Versailles.
431
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:45,520
The empress Maria-Theresa,
432
00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:46,920
who was Marie-Antoinette's mother,
433
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,760
was never satisfied with
any portrait of her daughter.
434
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,720
She received some portraits
that weren't so...
435
00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:56,800
that offended her.
436
00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:00,360
So she asked the queen to find a painter.
437
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,440
Marie-Antoinette is always disappointed
438
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:12,000
with the portraits done of her.
439
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:14,260
There's this famous letter to her mother,
440
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,520
in November 1774, in which she writes,
441
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,280
“The painters kill me and make me despair.”
442
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:24,000
So it's in this context of expectancy
443
00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:25,360
on the part of the queen,
444
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,720
that Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
445
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,400
is going to be given her chance
at painting her
446
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,440
and it's this first portrait
of the queen called
447
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:35,960
'En robe à paniers'; 'In a hoopskirt'.
448
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:45,040
When you look at the queen's face
449
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:46,080
in this portrait,
450
00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:48,720
it's still the 'Habsbourg' face, that is,
451
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:51,600
the jutted out chin, the thick bottom lip,
452
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:53,280
the slightly protruding eyes.
453
00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:57,440
Then progressively,
454
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:01,680
she uses her talent to soften
these physical defects,
455
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:05,640
to create an image which, ten years later,
456
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:08,040
is that of this woman of great beauty,
457
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,080
but which no longer
exactly reflects reality.
458
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,080
The likenesses are perfect,
459
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:24,880
and yes, she operated like
a plastic surgeon.
460
00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:28,680
Elisabeth's true talent could be said to be
461
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:31,840
that of adapting herself to
the personality of her sitter.
462
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:35,280
She's capable of bringing out the grace
463
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:36,960
of the young noble ladies,
464
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:39,440
the piquant lightness
465
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:41,920
of the actress Madame Molé Raymond,
466
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,640
or the sensuality of Madame Grant,
467
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:48,120
the future Princess of Talleyrand.
468
00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,720
There's a lot of grace
in Vigée-Le Brun's portraits,
469
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:56,640
and her texture is soft
and velvety, in fact.
470
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:00,160
There's a lot of sentiment there,
471
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:02,040
rather than sentimentality.
472
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,520
We feel she has empathy for her model.
473
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:08,680
Because she listens and observes,
474
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:11,120
she knows how to bring out
the natural attributes
475
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:12,160
of her models.
476
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:14,280
“It is difficult, however,
477
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,880
to convey to anyone
who has not seen the Queen
478
00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:19,200
an adequate idea of her noble traits
479
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:20,840
and many graceful qualities.
480
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,280
But the most remarkable thing
about her face
481
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:25,200
was the splendor of her complexion.
482
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:27,120
I have never seen one so brilliant,
483
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:28,800
and 'brilliant' is the word,
484
00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:32,120
for her skin was so transparent
that it had no shading.
485
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,680
I was unable to reproduce
its effect to my satisfaction;
486
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,240
I had no colors to paint such freshness,
487
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,800
such delicate tints, which were hers alone,
488
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,160
and which I have never found
in any other woman.”
489
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,680
Marie-Antoinette has found her portraitist.
490
00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:49,480
While not actually being close friends,
491
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:52,560
a steady relationship
of affectionate intimacy
492
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,160
established itself between the two women.
493
00:24:57,120 --> 00:24:59,520
Marie-Antoinette
shares her passion for the opera
494
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:00,720
with the portraitist
495
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:02,760
and the sittings often end
with the two of them
496
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:03,880
performing in a duet
497
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:05,840
the fashionable tunes of the time.
498
00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:45,120
Elisabeth now wants
the ultimate recognition,
499
00:25:45,360 --> 00:25:48,120
that of being accepted by
the Royal Academy of Painting.
500
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,560
But she's refused admission
because its regulations
501
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:55,040
formally forbid any contact
with mercantile professions
502
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:57,400
and she's the wife of an art dealer.
503
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,600
A woman at that time shared
the profession of her husband.
504
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:05,720
So that was the reason they excluded her.
505
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,240
So she went behind their backs
and went to the queen,
506
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,240
and persuaded the Queen
to get permission from the King
507
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:15,760
for her to be able to enter the academy,
508
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,800
because that was the royal way to succeed.
509
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:20,320
Then you could exhibit
510
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,000
in the official Salon of the Academy.
511
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:24,720
In reality,
512
00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:27,440
the Academy accepts very few women artists.
513
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,960
Only four of them will be admitted in 1783:
514
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,840
Madame Lebrun, Anne Vallayer-Coster,
515
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:37,040
Marie-Thérèse Reboul and a formidable rival
516
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,040
in the art of portraiture,
Adelaide Labille-Guiard.
517
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:42,280
She, and her great rival,
518
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:44,000
Madame Labille-Guiard,
519
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:47,760
used to show their finest work
in the Salon,
520
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:49,640
and each of them tried to beat
the other one.
521
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:51,560
So, in 1783,
522
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:53,680
Vigiée-Lebrun did her self-portrait
523
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:55,480
wearing a straw hat,
524
00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:57,880
which is one of the great
masterpieces of hers.
525
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:03,960
The very next Salon,
526
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:05,640
Madame Labille-Guiard
527
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:08,040
produced her self-portrait
with her students,
528
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,240
so she was trying to show off,
529
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:15,960
and to put herself
on the same level as her rival.
530
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,480
Madame Vigée-Lebrun,
who was extremely ambitious,
531
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,600
ardently wanted to attain
the higher hierarchy
532
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,160
of painting, which was history painting.
533
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:37,040
Among the history painters,
534
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:38,280
Jacques Louis David,
535
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:41,600
member of the Royal Academy,
is the uncontested master.
536
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:44,760
He will achieve fame in 1784
537
00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,440
with his famous painting
'Oath of the Horatii',
538
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:49,200
which will eclipse his rivals.
539
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,680
He will be a precious friend
and advisor to Elisabeth.
540
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:55,440
She always wanted to be a history painter,
541
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,520
in the scale of the genres
542
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:00,720
history painting was at the very top
543
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:04,040
and portraiture came in a much lower...
544
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:06,200
had a much lower standing.
545
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,600
In the 18th Century, anatomy is a domain
546
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:12,240
strictly reserved for men.
547
00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:15,480
The rule for women is
not to see a nude body,
548
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,880
not to be in the presence of a nude body.
549
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:22,800
If you couldn't draw from a male-nude,
550
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,960
you couldn't paint history,
you couldn't paint mythology.
551
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:28,080
Essentially,
552
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:30,880
you couldn't rise to
the highest plane in the arts.
553
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,280
So you were permanently handicapped.
554
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:37,920
Madame Vigée-Lebrun gets through
555
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,520
thanks to the helping hand
of her royal connections,
556
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,960
and impudently flirts with
the history painting genre
557
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:46,400
through the work she presents
as her reception piece:
558
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:48,880
'Peace bringing back Prosperity'.
559
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:53,840
We can see in this, her desire to be
560
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,040
a history painter, but using female models,
561
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,120
so remaining within the limits of decency.
562
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,200
But while women
know may know a certain success
563
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:03,800
as artists, they are limited
564
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:05,000
to the minor arts
565
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,400
which are the miniature,
the portrait or still-life.
566
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:13,000
What's always interesting
567
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:15,200
with these still-lifes is that these women
568
00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:16,840
are sending a hidden message.
569
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:21,320
Anne Vallayere Coster
570
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,100
is an artist specialized
in this static world
571
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,680
that is still-life,
one of the compositions of which
572
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:28,720
hides a very distinctive signature
573
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:33,600
of a horrible press-campaign against her.
574
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:35,760
Because she was...
575
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,200
she belonged to the circle that
576
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,400
who formed the most intimate friendships...
577
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,720
with the court of Louis the XVI
and Marie-Antoinette.
578
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,240
She became the official,
or rather the non-official
579
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:52,640
first painter to the Queen.
580
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:55,080
Elisabeth is likened to
581
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:58,120
the much-criticized queen
who's accused of being clannish,
582
00:29:58,360 --> 00:29:59,920
of spending extravagantly
583
00:29:59,960 --> 00:30:02,120
and of disregarding court etiquette.
584
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:07,560
Marie-Antoinette breaches court etiquette
585
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:09,880
by choosing her own dressmakers,
586
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,320
which theoretically she
doesn't have the right to do,
587
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:16,960
but she overrides this rule,
588
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:19,960
and this is why she favors Rose Bertin
589
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,280
as well as other dressmakers,
590
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,680
and why she also favors
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.
591
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,040
She's really the protector
of both these women.
592
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:34,800
This female trio represented by
593
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:37,240
Marie-Antoinette,
Rose Bertin and the portraitist
594
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,560
will become the model for Parisian taste.
595
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:41,400
Elisabeth, for her part,
596
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:43,240
spends very little on her wardrobe
597
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:45,800
and invents a simple
and practical dress style
598
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:47,200
that's suited to her work.
599
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:49,920
Leaving aside wigs, hoops, and adornments,
600
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,240
she wears white cotton blouses
and comfortable skirts
601
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:55,120
that she embellishes with a colored belt.
602
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,360
Soon, ladies of the court
and Parisian women
603
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:00,480
will want to emulate her style of dress.
604
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,240
She explains that she wants to change
605
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:05,280
the fashion codes
606
00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:07,520
and move more towards simplicity.
607
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:10,320
She relates that she's the first one
608
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,320
not to use powder on her models,
609
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:14,920
to have natural-looking hair
in her portraits.
610
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,200
All this takes place
in a historical context,
611
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:19,440
the 1780s,
612
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:21,480
influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
613
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:23,480
and his 'natural man' philosophy.
614
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:26,040
Madame Le Brun, always on the lookout
615
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:27,120
for new clients,
616
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,320
knows that the salon of the Royal Academy,
617
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:31,120
a veritable contemporary art fair,
618
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:32,680
is the place to be seen at.
619
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,520
She exhibits her portraits there
at each session.
620
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:40,080
The art salon is indispensable,
621
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:41,840
you have to show yourself.
622
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:46,760
And this is something
that Vigée-Le Brun excels at,
623
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:48,880
because not only is she a woman artist,
624
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:52,200
she's also a businesswoman, a strategist,
625
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,200
who pursues her career
in a very independent way
626
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:57,680
and who understood marketing
ahead of her time.
627
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:02,000
Elisabeth and Marie-Antoinette
628
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:03,560
mutually enhance each other:
629
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,440
the artist simplifies the look
of her royal model
630
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:07,680
and beautifies it.
631
00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,240
But this simplification has its limits
632
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:12,480
and for the salon of 1783,
633
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:14,720
she will propose a quite unexpected
634
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:15,760
picture of the queen.
635
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,600
We know the story
of the famous 'Muslin Dress'
636
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,320
portrait in which Marie-Antoinette wears
637
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,360
a simple English-style dress,
638
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,160
where the queen progressively
agrees to discard
639
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:30,800
her heavy stiff gowns
640
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:34,200
and be represented
in a much simpler manner.
641
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:46,600
This muslin dress,
642
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:48,880
which is a simple cotton muslin dress,
643
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,280
places the spotlight on a material 'cotton'
644
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:54,520
that's normally used for underwear,
645
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:56,720
or for a house dress, at the most.
646
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,480
So it's particularly audacious
on the part of Vigée-Lebrun
647
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:04,880
to present a portrait of Marie-Antoinette
648
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:08,120
dressed in a muslin dress in 1783
649
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:11,120
because this is the first salon
where she's exhibiting,
650
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:13,440
and she's taking an enormous risk.
651
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:16,280
A risk she doesn't entirely assume however,
652
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:17,600
because a few days later,
653
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:19,400
because of the scandal it provoked,
654
00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:21,720
she withdraws the painting and replaces it
655
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:23,280
with an identical portrait
656
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,440
but with the queen wearing
a much more conventional dress.
657
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:28,560
Despite the scandal
658
00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:30,880
provoked by the portrait,
Marie-Antoinette's faith
659
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,080
in her portraitist remains unshaken.
660
00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:35,800
She'll commission other portraits from her
661
00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:38,280
and soon one of her children too.
662
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,080
We have to place ourselves in the context.
663
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:42,960
A few years after their marriage,
664
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:46,440
the royal couple's infertility
becomes an affair of state.
665
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,400
So much so that the arrival
of 'Madame Royale',
666
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:50,880
Marie-Theresa Charlotte,
667
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,240
is a cause for national celebration,
668
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:55,040
and then the birth of the Dauphin,
669
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:56,400
Louis Joseph Xavier François,
670
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:58,800
sends the country into raptures of joy
671
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,200
since there's now
a male heir to the throne,
672
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:02,920
ensuring dynastic continuity.
673
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:08,200
Madame Lebrun is going to place them
674
00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:09,480
in a pastoral setting,
675
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:11,880
with the royal children
sitting on the ground.
676
00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:16,560
This is not at all in keeping
with court etiquette,
677
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:18,760
and yet their costume still reminds us
678
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:20,760
of the rank of Marie-Antoinette's children
679
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,560
since the heir apparent wears the insignia
680
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:27,520
and the celestial blue ribbon
of the Order of the Holy Spirit,
681
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,160
which all children of the sovereign receive
682
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:31,840
on the day of their baptism.
683
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:39,720
Madame Vigée Le Brun will find the model
684
00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:42,320
for this painting in a work
by one of her elders,
685
00:34:42,720 --> 00:34:43,720
François Hubert Drouais,
686
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,720
called 'Count d'Artois
and Madame Clotilde',
687
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:50,840
they are the brother
and sister of Louis XVI.
688
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:56,280
Pregnant again,
689
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:58,280
Elisabeth loses her second child,
690
00:34:58,320 --> 00:34:59,720
aged only a few months.
691
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,480
She transfers all her affection to Julie.
692
00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:06,160
In the tradition of the virgins
of Raphael whom she admires,
693
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:09,040
she paints herself with
her arms around her daughter,
694
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,280
an expression of 'maternal tenderness'
695
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:12,360
on her face.
696
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,800
In 1787 she paints herself
with her daughter
697
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,000
in a self-portrait
that the critics are immediately
698
00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:23,440
going to name 'Maternal Tenderness',
699
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,000
this gentle affection of the soul.
700
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:31,960
And this portrait will be
unanimously applauded
701
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:33,040
at the salon.
702
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,960
It's true, it does give off
a particularly harmonious image
703
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:39,640
of the mother-child relationship,
704
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:44,280
and it's this sort of ideal,
symbiotic image
705
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:46,280
that the artist will try to preserve
706
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:49,600
and which will be destroyed by the reality
707
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:51,840
of her true relationship with her daughter.
708
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:58,200
King Louis XVI
and especially Marie-Antoinette,
709
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:00,320
are the target of increasingly aggressive
710
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,560
criticisms and satirical cartoons.
711
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:04,440
Discontent is brewing,
712
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:06,760
what should have remained just an anecdote,
713
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,160
in 1785 becomes a scandal.
714
00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:11,760
The jewelers, Boehmer and Bassange
715
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,400
had in their safe since 1772
716
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,440
a fabulous 2,800 carat diamond necklace
717
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:19,400
intended for Madame Du Barry.
718
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,800
Louis XV dies before
the necklace is delivered.
719
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:25,360
The jewelers offered it
on two separate occasions
720
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:27,360
to Marie-Antoinette who refuses it.
721
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:29,040
The Countess de la Motte,
722
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,040
concocts an extraordinary plan
to steal the necklace,
723
00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:33,600
compromising the queen.
724
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:36,520
When the affair comes to light
the countess is arrested
725
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,520
and branded with 'V'
for 'voleur' meaning 'thief'.
726
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:41,320
The necklace was never found.
727
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:43,840
The pamphleteers picked up the story
728
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:46,680
of 'the affair of the necklace'
and refused to believe
729
00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:48,080
in Marie-Antoinette's innocence.
730
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,400
The scandal destroys what's left
of the queen's reputation
731
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:52,440
in the eyes of the public
732
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,160
who now accuse her of all kinds of wrongs.
733
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,640
This is why the superintendent
of the King's Buildings,
734
00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:01,720
d'Angevilliers, is going to
commission from the artist
735
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,440
a portrait of the queen
as a mother with her children.
736
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,880
It's at a time when the queen
is extremely unpopular,
737
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:10,520
she's referred to as 'the Austrian'.
738
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:12,560
There's this famous necklace affair,
739
00:37:12,720 --> 00:37:14,280
so it's really in the aim
740
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:16,000
of rehabilitating Marie-Antoinette,
741
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,400
to have people forget
the frivolous young woman
742
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:20,680
she may have been and rehabilitate her
743
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:23,280
through exalting her in her role as mother.
744
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:25,560
So it's a highly political commission.
745
00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:31,920
It's a group portrait,
a composition that the artist
746
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:33,800
isn't particularly used to doing,
747
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,880
and it's also a very large format portrait,
748
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:39,760
so she's going to ask David for advice.
749
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:44,440
He suggests a triangular composition
750
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:46,480
in order to 'sanctify' the painting
751
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:48,280
and bring to mind the compositions
752
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:49,400
of the Renaissance,
753
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:51,960
and in particular Raphael's holy families.
754
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,840
Exhibited in the salon of 1787
755
00:37:57,920 --> 00:37:59,800
between the portrait of Julie
and her mother
756
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:01,720
and a portrait of Madame Adelaide
757
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:03,080
by Labille-Guiard,
758
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:06,720
the painting could almost allude
to an episode of Roman History,
759
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,520
that of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi.
760
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:11,640
A friend who'd come to visit Cornelia
761
00:38:11,720 --> 00:38:14,680
and show off her jewelry
asks to see Cornelia's in turn.
762
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,440
Cornelia replies by gesturing
to her children:
763
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,360
'These are my treasures
and my finest jewels'.
764
00:38:24,720 --> 00:38:26,880
That's why we see in this highly composed
765
00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:28,920
painting, Queen Marie-Antoinette
766
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:30,000
with her children,
767
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:31,880
and behind them, the queen's jewel case.
768
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:34,240
The jewel case is relegated
to the background
769
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:35,660
and it's her children that are placed
770
00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:36,920
in the foreground.
771
00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:41,440
Placed on the jewel case
772
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:43,920
is the royal crown resting on a cushion
773
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,320
decorated with Fleur-de-lys to remind us
774
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,560
of the majestic dignity of the characters.
775
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:51,080
We're still in a royal context.
776
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,240
Now this jewel case,
even if it is in the shadows,
777
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:56,820
can't help bringing to mind
the recent affair
778
00:38:56,840 --> 00:38:57,840
of the necklace,
779
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,000
so it's perhaps because of this
that the painting
780
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:01,200
fails in its purpose.
781
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:07,320
Everyone sees the portrait;
it's heavily criticized,
782
00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:10,160
especially for the expression
on the queen's face,
783
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:11,760
which is deemed to be too sad.
784
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:15,080
It's far too late
785
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,800
for Marie-Antoinette's
reputation to be restored.
786
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:22,360
These scandals don't make a dent
787
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:25,120
in Madame Lebrun's artistic
and social successes.
788
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,720
Her “little antechamber” has
become a very popular salon
789
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:30,960
in Paris where celebrities can be counted
790
00:39:31,240 --> 00:39:34,200
amongst the painters, poets
and fashionable musicians.
791
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,360
Anyone who was anyone in Paris, in music,
792
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:39,920
came to her salon.
793
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:42,160
So who were these people?
794
00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:43,520
Well there was Gluck.
795
00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:45,560
Gluck is a star in France.
796
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:48,120
Since his arrival at the Paris Opera House,
797
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:50,160
he received lots of commissions,
798
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:52,720
he wrote six great operas for Paris.
799
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:58,200
Grétry came to her salon,
she sang with him,
800
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:01,000
and Grétry was also a European celebrity.
801
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:05,800
Everyone came to her.
802
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:10,440
She put on very, very
fine entertainments at home.
803
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:17,160
In a constant spirit of creativity,
804
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:19,280
Elisabeth lends support to a movement
805
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:21,440
that will be very popular up
until the beginning
806
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:24,880
of the 19th Century: the return
to the 'Antique' style.
807
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:27,040
“I will now give you,
808
00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:28,120
my dear friend,
809
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:30,240
the exact account
of the most brilliant supper
810
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,480
I ever gave in the days
when people were always talking
811
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:34,960
about my luxurious
and magnificent mode of life.”
812
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:42,680
While she rests,
her brother would read her poems
813
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:43,760
or books.
814
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:46,760
And that day he reads her
an excerpt from a novel
815
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:48,480
by the Abbot Barthélemy
816
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:51,200
describing an Antique-style dinner.
817
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:56,960
“One evening, when I had invited a dozen
818
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:59,160
or more friends to hear
a recital by the poet Lebrun,
819
00:40:59,720 --> 00:41:01,160
my brother read aloud to me,
820
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:03,440
a few pages of the 'Travels of Anacharsis'
821
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:04,480
during my rest.
822
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:07,960
When he came to the passage where,
823
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:09,600
in the description of a Greek dinner,
824
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:13,120
the method of preparing
various sauces is explained,
825
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:16,360
he said "We ought to try this tonight".
826
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:20,280
I sent immediately for my cook
827
00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:22,280
and gave her the necessary instructions
828
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,200
for the preparation
of a certain sauce for the fowl
829
00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:26,920
and of another for the eel.”
830
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:36,240
“My atelier, full of things
I used for draping my models,
831
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:38,760
would furnish me with
enough material for garments.
832
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,520
I placed behind the chairs a large screen,
833
00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:43,600
which I took the precaution of concealing
834
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:46,200
beneath some hangings
looped up at intervals,
835
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:48,200
as may be seen in Poussin's pictures.
836
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:53,840
As I was expecting
some very beautiful women,
837
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:56,600
I thought it a good idea to dress everybody
838
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:57,680
in Greek costumes,
839
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:00,480
in order to have a surprise
ready for Mr de Vaudreuil
840
00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:02,400
who was not expected till ten o'clock.
841
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:06,080
As I always wore white gowns
in the form of a tunic,
842
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:08,880
I needed only to put
a chaplet of flowers on my head.
843
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:11,240
The preparations were finished.
844
00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:14,080
I took particular pains
in costuming my daughter,
845
00:42:14,720 --> 00:42:16,080
darling child that she was.”
846
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:19,680
The guests start to arrive.
847
00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:22,840
Madame de Bonneuil, Madame Chalgrin.
848
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:25,760
She dresses them up
in drapings from her studio,
849
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:28,960
wraps scarves
and shawls around their waists.
850
00:42:31,240 --> 00:42:32,240
“And there they were,
851
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:35,320
all three metamorphosed
into perfect Athenians.
852
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:38,600
Lebrun-Pindare comes in;
853
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:41,920
and I fix on his head a crown of laurels.
854
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:46,560
At ten o'clock we heard the carriage
855
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:48,280
of Count de Vaudreuil enter the courtyard.
856
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:50,520
He was so surprised and delighted
857
00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:52,600
that he stood motionless for a long time
858
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:54,360
before making up his mind to take the seat
859
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:55,440
we had reserved for him.
860
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,600
I do not believe I have ever
spent a more amusing evening.
861
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:05,040
Monsieur de Vaudreuil was so delighted
862
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:06,700
with the evening
that he talked about it to all
863
00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:08,200
his acquaintances the next day.
864
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:10,600
Some ladies of the Court
begged me to repeat
865
00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:11,680
the performance.
866
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:13,440
I declined for various reasons,
867
00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:15,920
whereat several of the ladies
took offence.”
868
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:19,920
If the name of Count Vaudreuil
869
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:22,440
is so often mentioned
in Madame Le Brun's 'Memoirs'
870
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:25,480
it's because their relationship
may have been less platonic
871
00:43:25,720 --> 00:43:26,720
than she describes it.
872
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:34,560
She probably had a liaison
with Count Vaudreuil,
873
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:37,680
in any case her gardener notes in his diary
874
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,000
that Madame Le Brun
was Vaudreuil's mistress.
875
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:47,760
Madame Le Brun possessed
amongst her objects,
876
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:51,320
a snuffbox which had
a lock of Vaudreuil's hair
877
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:52,920
inlayed in its lid.
878
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,480
There exists a regular
correspondence between them.
879
00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:06,600
This correspondence was burnt
during the Reign of Terror
880
00:44:06,680 --> 00:44:09,160
by Etienne Vigée, for safety's sake,
881
00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:12,080
but the fact
that this correspondence existed
882
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:13,400
gives us a clue.
883
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:16,640
Since the end of the 1780s,
884
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:18,920
bad harvests and ever heavier taxes
885
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:21,240
weaken and discontent the population.
886
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:22,840
Revolts break out.
887
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:25,120
To find a solution to the financial crisis,
888
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:27,840
the king convokes a meeting
of the Estates-General.
889
00:44:28,240 --> 00:44:31,400
On June 20th 1789 in the Jeu de Paume room
890
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:33,560
at Versailles, the deputies
of the Third Estate,
891
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:36,840
the Clergy and the Nobility
take an oath not to adjourn
892
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:39,080
before adopting a Constitution for France.
893
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:41,760
On June 30th, the people of Paris
894
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:44,200
storm the prison of the Abbey
of Saint-Germain des Près
895
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:46,200
and free the French Guards imprisoned there
896
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:47,640
for insubordination.
897
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:51,240
On the morning of July 14th,
the Parisian rioters
898
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:52,680
go looking for arms.
899
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:55,400
They pillage the arsenal
of the Hôtel des Invalides
900
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:58,240
and the Royal Treasury
where they find guns and cannons
901
00:44:58,480 --> 00:44:59,480
but no powder.
902
00:44:59,720 --> 00:45:01,200
They'll find some at the Bastille
903
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:03,600
together with other partisans
of the revolution
904
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:07,120
amassed in front of the fortress
prison in Faubourg Saint-Antoine
905
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:08,440
since that morning.
906
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:10,840
The storming and destruction
of the Bastille,
907
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:13,440
symbol of arbitrary power, begins.
908
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:24,920
An atmosphere of insecurity
spreads through Paris
909
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:27,840
and Louise Elisabeth
feels herself in danger.
910
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:31,360
Inscriptions are scrawled
on the newly renovated walls
911
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:32,960
of the Lebrun mansion.
912
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:35,280
She can no longer show herself
at the window.
913
00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:39,200
A new municipal administration
914
00:45:39,240 --> 00:45:40,280
is going to be set up.
915
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,280
Louis XVI goes to Paris on July 17th
916
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:47,080
and agrees to wear pinned
to his hat the tricolor cockade
917
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,880
a combination of blue and red,
the colors of Paris,
918
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:51,120
with the royal white.
919
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:53,920
During the night of August 4th 1789,
920
00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:56,840
the assembly abolishes
aristocratic privilege.
921
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:00,240
The society of the Old Order
is living its final moments.
922
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:03,880
Louise Elisabeth, who doesn't want to stay
923
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:05,280
at the Lebrun house,
924
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:08,120
goes to Louveciennes where she's promised
925
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:09,280
Madame Du Barry,
926
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:11,440
the former favorite of Louis XV,
927
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:12,840
to paint her portrait.
928
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:16,120
She finds a moment of peace in this setting
929
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,480
where she admires
the view of the Seine hillsides.
930
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:25,440
At Louveciennes
time seems to have stood still.
931
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:30,080
But the peace is deceptive.
932
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:33,480
Paris is under siege
933
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:36,800
and violent rioting rages day
and night in the suburbs.
934
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,680
“From Louveciennes
we could hear cannon fire
935
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:49,760
in the distance,
936
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:57,040
and I remember the poor woman saying,
937
00:46:58,040 --> 00:46:59,520
“If Louis XV were alive,
938
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:01,080
none of this would be happening.”
939
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:04,640
Elisabeth knows
that she has to leave France.
940
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:10,320
It's effectively the moment
for her to go into exile.
941
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:14,120
She waited, however,
until October before leaving.
942
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:18,560
Unlike Count d'Artois,
who left on July the 14th.
943
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,360
On October 5th 1789,
944
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:25,720
a crowd, mainly women, makes
its way towards Versailles.
945
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:27,520
The king receives a delegation.
946
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:29,880
But at break of day on October 6th,
947
00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:32,880
the horde storms the palace,
killing several guards.
948
00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:35,160
To calm the situation, Louis XVI agrees
949
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:37,760
to go with his family
to the Tuileries palace.
950
00:47:38,240 --> 00:47:41,120
They're escorted through
an angry, vociferous crowd.
951
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:43,400
The heads of guards
are brandished on pikes.
952
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:47,480
For Elisabeth, flight is now inevitable.
953
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:53,800
By a strange coincidence,
she'll take the stagecoach
954
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:57,000
the day after the royal family
is led from Versailles
955
00:47:57,040 --> 00:47:59,680
to the Town Hall, then to the Tuileries.
956
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,080
That night, disguised as working women,
957
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:05,200
Elisabeth, Brunette and her governess
958
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:06,920
climb into the stagecoach.
959
00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:20,640
Her brother Etienne, Jean-Baptiste Lebrun
960
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:24,040
and their friend Hubert Robert,
ride at the side of the coach
961
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:25,920
up to the Saint Antoine barrier.
962
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:30,120
The first stage of the journey
will take Elisabeth to Lyon.
963
00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:32,880
She doesn't know it yet
but this journey will last
964
00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:34,160
thirteen years.
965
00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:37,720
Thirteen years of exile throughout Europe.
966
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:06,560
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
967
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:08,560
left Paris with very little luggage
968
00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:11,360
and just enough money
to pay her fare to Rome,
969
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:13,720
hoping she would not be recognized
970
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:16,160
and could pass the border without mishap.
971
00:49:17,720 --> 00:49:18,960
Opposite me in the stagecoach
972
00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:20,680
was a man who told me quite simply
973
00:49:20,720 --> 00:49:22,760
that he had stolen watches
and other things.
974
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,720
Not satisfied with relating
his fine exploits to us,
975
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:30,120
the thief talked incessantly
of stringing up
976
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:32,120
such and such people on lamp-posts,
977
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:34,360
naming a number of my own acquaintances.
978
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:37,880
My daughter thought this man very wicked.
979
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:38,960
He frightened her,
980
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:40,820
and this gave me the courage to say,
981
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:42,800
"I beg you, sir, not to talk of killing
982
00:49:42,840 --> 00:49:43,840
before this child."
983
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:47,760
That silenced him,
984
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:50,520
and he ended by playing
battle with my daughter.
985
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:57,040
After a stop in Lyon,
986
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:00,600
the traveler then reached
Chambéry in the state of Savoy.
987
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:03,920
Once outside of France,
she finally felt safe.
988
00:50:04,720 --> 00:50:06,960
But she was recognized by a postilion
989
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:08,720
while she crossed the Mont Cenis Pass,
990
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:10,920
simply because he had seen an engraving
991
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:12,600
of her self-portrait with her daughter.
992
00:50:13,240 --> 00:50:15,400
Madame Lebrun's celebrity had been fueled
993
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:17,760
by the spread throughout
Europe of engravings
994
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:19,280
of her most famous portraits.
995
00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:21,160
Reassured for a while,
996
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:22,960
she continued on her way to Rome.
997
00:50:24,520 --> 00:50:27,360
The young woman decided
to leave on what would appear
998
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:29,200
like a study trip to Italy.
999
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:34,040
The Grand Tour in Italy
was a rite of passage
1000
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:35,120
for painters.
1001
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:37,320
So off she went, leaving her husband
1002
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:38,720
but taking her daughter.
1003
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:45,800
In the late eighteenth century,
1004
00:50:45,840 --> 00:50:47,000
travel was fashionable.
1005
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:50,800
Exiles, traders and artists
in search of patrons
1006
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:53,440
criss-crossed Europe in stagecoaches, cabs
1007
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:54,480
and carriages.
1008
00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:58,480
New roads and repairs to old roads
1009
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:00,000
were shortening travel time.
1010
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:04,920
In 1750, it took twelve days
to cross France,
1011
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:08,120
whereas fifteen years later,
eight sufficed.
1012
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:12,600
In 1780, the public coaches
were still twice as fast
1013
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:14,040
on the royal roads,
1014
00:51:14,200 --> 00:51:16,260
while the invention of spring suspension
1015
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:17,920
eased the travelers' tiredness.
1016
00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:33,000
Fresh horses awaited riders
and carriages at post houses,
1017
00:51:33,240 --> 00:51:35,760
in order to accelerate mail delivery.
1018
00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:39,400
Here, inns would cater
to travelers' appetites
1019
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:42,480
and sometimes provide basic accommodation.
1020
00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:48,960
Since the seventeenth century,
Rome had been the homeland
1021
00:51:49,040 --> 00:51:50,640
of all European artists.
1022
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:53,800
The circulation of the paintings
of Italian artists
1023
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:55,880
and the creation of large collections
1024
00:51:56,200 --> 00:51:58,360
ensured that the whole
of Europe was familiar
1025
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:00,080
with the works of the masters.
1026
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:02,880
The "Grand Tour", as it was called,
1027
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:05,200
was a study trip, not just for artists,
1028
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:07,120
but also for young gentlemen
1029
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:09,200
keen to round out their education.
1030
00:52:11,240 --> 00:52:14,080
Italian landscapes were
in fashion at the time.
1031
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:18,800
In France, Joseph Vernet
romanticized Naples and Rome
1032
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:22,300
whereas Hubert Robert
specialized in depicting
1033
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:23,680
ancient Roman ruins.
1034
00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:33,640
The artist did break her journey;
1035
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:36,000
first in Turin, then in Parma.
1036
00:52:36,360 --> 00:52:39,880
Finally she traveled to Bologna
where she stayed for some time.
1037
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:46,400
In this town,
the first thing the young woman
1038
00:52:46,480 --> 00:52:49,360
wanted to see was a picture
she had heard of by Domenichino:
1039
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:51,800
the Martyrdom of Saint Agnes.
1040
00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:55,120
Soon after her arrival, she was gazing
1041
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:57,880
at the painting at length,
moved by the youth
1042
00:52:58,000 --> 00:52:59,760
and innocence of the young martyr.
1043
00:53:00,280 --> 00:53:02,640
Suddenly the organ struck up the overture
1044
00:53:02,720 --> 00:53:04,280
to Iphigénie en Tauride,
1045
00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:06,600
one of Marie Antoinette's favorite arias.
1046
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:13,360
Saint Ephigenia and the queen
merged into one tragic image.
1047
00:53:14,240 --> 00:53:16,160
The traveler burst into tears.
1048
00:53:19,240 --> 00:53:22,440
A flood of memories
of happy, light-hearted times
1049
00:53:22,680 --> 00:53:23,960
that seemed forever lost,
1050
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:27,520
and for the first time
she deeply felt the solitude
1051
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:28,760
of exile.
1052
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,000
From Bologna she journeyed to Florence,
1053
00:53:39,240 --> 00:53:40,560
where she decided to linger.
1054
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:44,440
In the Uffizi Gallery,
enriched by the Medicis,
1055
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:47,280
she explored the masterpiece
of Michelangelo,
1056
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:50,360
Titian, Raphael, and in the Palazzo Pitti,
1057
00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:52,200
those of Rubens and Rembrandt.
1058
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:54,600
For a time, the wealth of wonders
1059
00:53:54,640 --> 00:53:56,720
made her forget Paris and the revolution,
1060
00:53:57,320 --> 00:53:59,280
and she set off once more for Rome,
1061
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:01,200
spiritual home of all artists.
1062
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:04,320
"You know, dear friend,
1063
00:54:04,640 --> 00:54:06,520
that just a short distance from Rome
1064
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:07,800
Saint Peter's dome is visible?
1065
00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:11,600
I cannot tell you the joy
I felt upon seeing it.
1066
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:15,120
I thought I was dreaming of what
I had so long desired in vain.
1067
00:54:27,240 --> 00:54:29,280
Only the satisfaction of living in Rome
1068
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:31,680
could soothe my sorrow at leaving my land,
1069
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:34,440
my family, and so many beloved friends."
1070
00:54:36,840 --> 00:54:39,200
Upon arrival, the portraitist was taken in
1071
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:41,320
by her friend, the painter Ménageot,
1072
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:43,000
director of the French Academy.
1073
00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:44,720
He lent her a little money.
1074
00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:47,240
Ménageot admired her greatly,
1075
00:54:47,360 --> 00:54:49,600
and she loved to hear him
talk about painting.
1076
00:54:50,040 --> 00:54:52,200
It's possible that a platonic relationship
1077
00:54:52,240 --> 00:54:53,560
developed between them.
1078
00:54:55,040 --> 00:54:57,640
Founded in 1666 by Colbert
1079
00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:00,040
and later installed in the Palazzo Mancini,
1080
00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:02,600
the Academy welcomed "pensionnaires"
1081
00:55:02,880 --> 00:55:04,880
chosen by the Académie Royale.
1082
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:10,480
Her fame had crossed borders
and orders from exiled emigrants
1083
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:12,800
and Italian nobles came flooding in.
1084
00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:15,960
She was even invited by the Vatican
1085
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:18,800
to execute a portrait of Pope Pius VI.
1086
00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:21,440
Elisabeth refused the commission
1087
00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:23,980
as custom would have insisted
on her being veiled
1088
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:25,000
for the sittings,
1089
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:27,720
which she saw as incompatible
with the quality of her work.
1090
00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:31,000
When she arrived in Rome,
1091
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:33,640
she came across an already established
1092
00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:34,760
female painter
1093
00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:39,120
even more successful
than herself: Angelica Kauffman.
1094
00:55:41,160 --> 00:55:42,840
Like Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun,
1095
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,920
Angelica Kauffman was a precocious artist.
1096
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:49,040
Born in Switzerland,
also into a family of painters,
1097
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:51,480
she traveled throughout
Europe at a young age,
1098
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:53,960
acquiring a cosmopolitan clientele.
1099
00:55:54,520 --> 00:55:56,440
In London, she was one of the founders
1100
00:55:56,520 --> 00:55:57,520
of the Royal Academy,
1101
00:55:57,600 --> 00:56:00,160
and her portraits were
sought after among the gentry.
1102
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:04,320
Angelica Kauffmann has
a rather different background.
1103
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:08,320
She started out an international artist.
1104
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:10,280
She had a father who was
a journeyman painter.
1105
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:14,960
She once was in fact a history painter
1106
00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:16,320
a good part of her life,
1107
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:18,100
and that's one of the great differences
1108
00:56:18,120 --> 00:56:19,120
between the two of them
1109
00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:21,920
and she was traveling all over
Switzerland and north Italy
1110
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:23,000
when she was very young.
1111
00:56:23,120 --> 00:56:26,080
I dare say that she was
a more international artist
1112
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:29,240
than even Vigée-Lebrun.
1113
00:56:33,360 --> 00:56:35,760
In her memoirs, Madame Vigée Le Brun
1114
00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:37,720
speaks of Angelica Kauffman,
1115
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:40,360
saying she was very intelligent
1116
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:42,200
and that what she did was pretty.
1117
00:56:43,080 --> 00:56:44,640
You could sense she didn't want to say
1118
00:56:44,720 --> 00:56:45,840
she was a good painter.
1119
00:56:46,040 --> 00:56:49,080
She just said she was
very cultured but rather boring.
1120
00:56:50,160 --> 00:56:52,000
Despite the unfavorable review,
1121
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:54,600
Elisabeth was flattered
to appear at the theater
1122
00:56:54,800 --> 00:56:57,120
or the opera alongside the most famous
1123
00:56:57,200 --> 00:56:58,200
of her colleagues.
1124
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:01,560
She was thrilled that all the spectators
1125
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:04,040
finally acclaimed them
as the two most famous
1126
00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:05,320
female artists in Europe.
1127
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:11,880
Though the male-written history books
1128
00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:13,120
may have forgotten their names
1129
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:15,400
great museums and international collectors
1130
00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:17,400
have fought over the masterpieces
1131
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:19,960
of Rosalba Carriera, Angelica Kauffmann,
1132
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:23,360
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
and Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun.
1133
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:26,680
Female painters were prisoners
of their category,
1134
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:29,760
but some, such as Marie Guillemine Benoist,
1135
00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:31,000
did break free.
1136
00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:34,200
Despite the critics
Elisabeth's former pupil,
1137
00:57:34,240 --> 00:57:36,160
launched herself into genre painting
1138
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:38,200
like this portrait of a Black woman,
1139
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:41,120
which would become a symbol
of the emancipation of slaves
1140
00:57:41,400 --> 00:57:42,400
and of feminism.
1141
00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:46,560
You get the impression there were very few
1142
00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:48,360
women painters or artists
1143
00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:50,480
and that the men far outnumbered them.
1144
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:52,560
But you gradually realize
1145
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:54,400
that there really were quite a few
1146
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:56,080
but they were kept in the shade
1147
00:57:56,480 --> 00:57:58,920
and forced into the background
in regard to the men.
1148
00:58:04,480 --> 00:58:06,200
Noting that lots of foreigners
1149
00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:08,160
were leaving to spend the summer in Naples,
1150
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:09,960
Elisabeth decided to go there
1151
00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:12,120
after spending several months in Rome.
1152
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:17,520
"We reached Naples
at about three or four o'clock.
1153
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,520
I cannot describe the impression I received
1154
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:25,800
upon entering the town.
1155
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:28,960
That burning sun, that stretch of sea,
1156
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:31,360
those islands seen in the distance,
1157
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:34,120
that Vesuvius with a great column of smoke
1158
00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:35,200
ascending from it.
1159
00:58:35,920 --> 00:58:37,440
I was enchanted by all of it."
1160
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:43,720
In Naples, one of the first people
1161
00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:45,720
she got to know was Lord Hamilton,
1162
00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:49,920
in whose entourage was
the famous Lady Hamilton,
1163
00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:52,680
or rather the soon-to-be Lady Hamilton,
1164
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:55,480
whom the artist painted many times.
1165
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:02,800
Owing to her extraordinary physique,
1166
00:59:03,160 --> 00:59:05,000
she was already sitting for Reynolds,
1167
00:59:05,640 --> 00:59:08,200
and her likenesses were
well-known throughout Europe.
1168
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:12,800
Emma Hart, the future Lady Hamilton,
1169
00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:15,080
began her career in a London tavern.
1170
00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:17,320
Thanks to her astonishing beauty,
1171
00:59:17,520 --> 00:59:19,760
she found, with several English gentlemen,
1172
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:21,600
the protection she required.
1173
00:59:22,240 --> 00:59:24,200
Despite her scandalous reputation,
1174
00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:27,960
Emma managed in 1791 to wed Lord Hamilton,
1175
00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:29,760
British ambassador to Naples.
1176
00:59:30,920 --> 00:59:33,360
The portrait of her as Sybil would be used
1177
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:36,640
by Elisabeth as a reference work
to acquire new clients.
1178
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:42,280
This portrait would be very important
1179
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:43,320
in her career.
1180
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:45,800
She carried it with her
1181
00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:48,840
and at each stage
of her European tour would
1182
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:49,960
unroll it,
1183
00:59:50,720 --> 00:59:54,600
pin it in a frame
and thus advertise her talent.
1184
00:59:58,520 --> 01:00:01,600
In Naples, she was soon
introduced to the royal family,
1185
01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:04,520
more particularly to Marie Caroline,
1186
01:00:04,600 --> 01:00:06,880
who was Marie Antoinette's elder sister.
1187
01:00:10,120 --> 01:00:11,600
Elisabeth was very moved
1188
01:00:11,960 --> 01:00:14,600
by the striking resemblance
between the two sisters
1189
01:00:15,160 --> 01:00:17,200
and painted a portrait of Marie Caroline
1190
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:19,320
in virtually the same pose
as Marie Antoinette.
1191
01:00:20,480 --> 01:00:23,040
Of this fine portrait, only copies remain.
1192
01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:26,920
One morning in the summer of 1790,
1193
01:00:27,120 --> 01:00:29,080
French ambassador Baron de Talleyrand
1194
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:31,600
brought her a commission
from the Queen of Naples:
1195
01:00:31,960 --> 01:00:33,840
that of the portrait of her two daughters,
1196
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:35,200
whom she sought to marry.
1197
01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:39,080
"The hour of noon
was appointed for the sittings,
1198
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:42,340
and to attend I was obliged
to follow the Chiaja road
1199
01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:43,360
in the heat of the day.
1200
01:00:45,360 --> 01:00:47,480
The sun's reflection was so vivid
1201
01:00:48,040 --> 01:00:49,680
that I was almost struck blind.
1202
01:00:50,840 --> 01:00:53,560
To save my eyes, I put on a green veil,
1203
01:00:53,920 --> 01:00:55,520
which I had never seen anyone else do,
1204
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:57,540
and which must have looked rather peculiar,
1205
01:00:57,560 --> 01:00:59,720
since only black or white veils were worn.
1206
01:01:00,560 --> 01:01:02,840
But a few days after
I saw several English women
1207
01:01:02,960 --> 01:01:03,960
imitating me,
1208
01:01:04,200 --> 01:01:06,080
and green veils came into fashion."
1209
01:01:08,720 --> 01:01:11,840
The fashion was launched
and, with a hint of vanity,
1210
01:01:11,920 --> 01:01:15,080
she boasted of inventing a
style that other women adopted.
1211
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:20,440
Though a pioneer of fashion abroad,
she did not want to be forgotten in France.
1212
01:01:21,120 --> 01:01:23,360
So, using Ménageot as go-between,
1213
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:26,400
she sent off a portrait
to the Salon du Louvre.
1214
01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:35,200
For the 1791 Salon, she sent,
rolled in a painting by Ménageot,
1215
01:01:35,800 --> 01:01:38,360
her portrait of Paisiello, the musician.
1216
01:01:39,240 --> 01:01:40,720
A magnificent portrait
1217
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:44,120
which was exhibited with
the paintings of David, etc.
1218
01:01:46,760 --> 01:01:50,920
She painted him in 1790,
in a moment of inspiration.
1219
01:01:51,280 --> 01:01:53,000
His eyes were raised heavenward.
1220
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:55,680
He was composing on the harpsichord
1221
01:01:55,960 --> 01:01:58,360
and seemed to be seeking
divine inspiration.
1222
01:02:00,040 --> 01:02:03,280
It's a recurrent image in Madame
Vigée Le Brun's body of work.
1223
01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:07,200
She also painted Angélica
Catalani, a soprano,
1224
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:09,280
one of Paisiello's artists,
1225
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:12,040
also in this attitude
of divine inspiration.
1226
01:02:14,400 --> 01:02:17,280
While Elisabeth
was persona non gratain France,
1227
01:02:17,520 --> 01:02:19,720
her rival, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard,
1228
01:02:19,800 --> 01:02:21,840
who rallied to the revolutionary cause,
1229
01:02:22,080 --> 01:02:24,280
portrayed Robespierre and his friends,
1230
01:02:24,560 --> 01:02:28,520
thus attempting to ensure the
support of the new strongmen in Paris.
1231
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:33,920
Back in Rome, Madame Vigée Le Brun
returned to her friend François Ménageot
1232
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:35,760
and set to work once more.
1233
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:40,000
Two daughters of Louis XV,
Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire
1234
01:02:40,160 --> 01:02:45,040
both in exile, called her and, during a
sitting, informed her of some tragic news.
1235
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:49,600
In the night of June 211791,
1236
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:52,760
the royal family left
the Tuileries Palace in secret
1237
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:54,800
and took a coach bound for Lorraine,
1238
01:02:54,960 --> 01:02:58,040
towards the French troops that
had remained loyal to the king.
1239
01:02:58,440 --> 01:03:02,880
Traveling with fake passports, the runaways
were nonetheless recognized in Varennes
1240
01:03:03,000 --> 01:03:05,480
and taken back to Paris
by the National Guard.
1241
01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:09,120
The royal escape was viewed
as a betrayal of the Constitution.
1242
01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:11,840
The idea of a Republic was gaining ground
1243
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:15,080
and supporters of the abolition
of the Monarchy used this event
1244
01:03:15,160 --> 01:03:18,480
to accuse Louis XVI of rallying
to France's enemies.
1245
01:03:21,760 --> 01:03:24,640
The artist had planned to return to France
1246
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:27,560
after a three-year stay in Italy.
1247
01:03:31,880 --> 01:03:34,160
On the way, she lingered in Tuscany,
1248
01:03:34,400 --> 01:03:37,800
where her love of nature was matched
by the richness of the landscapes.
1249
01:03:39,320 --> 01:03:40,680
She made a visit to Venice,
1250
01:03:40,920 --> 01:03:43,880
where she was charmed by
its architecture on wooden piles
1251
01:03:44,560 --> 01:03:47,840
and by the many parties she attended
with a writer and engraver friend,
1252
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:50,600
also a refugee, Dominique Vivant Denon,
1253
01:03:50,920 --> 01:03:53,880
who had fun making an
engraving of her self-portrait.
1254
01:03:57,720 --> 01:04:01,000
Keen to return to France,
Elisabeth headed for Turin.
1255
01:04:01,400 --> 01:04:03,080
But the city was filled with émigrés
1256
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:05,280
fleeing the bloody massacres in Paris
1257
01:04:05,400 --> 01:04:08,280
from September 2 to 7, 1792.
1258
01:04:08,720 --> 01:04:10,560
"On entering the town, great heavens!
1259
01:04:10,720 --> 01:04:14,640
Streets, squares, were all filled
with thousands of people of all ages,
1260
01:04:14,720 --> 01:04:17,920
who had fled from French towns
and come to Turin in search of a home.
1261
01:04:18,640 --> 01:04:20,040
The sight broke my heart.
1262
01:04:20,280 --> 01:04:23,560
Trembling, I dared only ask for
news of my mother, my brother,
1263
01:04:23,680 --> 01:04:27,120
Mr. Lebrun and all my friends, and
abandoned the plan of going to Paris."
1264
01:04:28,360 --> 01:04:31,320
The young woman realized that
she could not return to France.
1265
01:04:31,640 --> 01:04:33,800
Shattered, she turned back towards Milan.
1266
01:04:34,320 --> 01:04:38,280
She was advised by Count Wilczeck,
Austrian ambassador to Milan,
1267
01:04:38,560 --> 01:04:41,320
and decided to win over
a new clientele in Vienna.
1268
01:04:41,800 --> 01:04:45,680
Elisabeth entered the Holy
Roman capital in summer 1792,
1269
01:04:45,840 --> 01:04:47,760
and there she stayed for three years.
1270
01:04:47,920 --> 01:04:53,640
Her time was split between concerts,
melancholy strolls in Schönbrunn
1271
01:04:53,880 --> 01:04:59,640
and, of course, the production of paintings
for all the Poles and the diplomats in Vienna.
1272
01:05:02,560 --> 01:05:04,280
"I worked a great deal in Vienna.
1273
01:05:04,640 --> 01:05:05,960
It would be difficult to express
1274
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:09,440
all the gratitude I felt for the
reception I was afforded in this town.
1275
01:05:10,440 --> 01:05:13,840
Not only did the Viennese express
their affection for me personally,
1276
01:05:14,400 --> 01:05:18,680
they thought it stylish to place my
paintings in a way that set them off best."
1277
01:05:20,960 --> 01:05:23,200
Elisabeth was a perfect colorist
1278
01:05:23,280 --> 01:05:25,640
who had learned
to grind pigments into powder
1279
01:05:25,800 --> 01:05:28,800
by binding them
with various raw or cooked oils.
1280
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:30,520
She claimed that these preparations
1281
01:05:30,600 --> 01:05:32,760
were the secret of her colors' freshness.
1282
01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:36,720
But the quick-drying paint
had to be used immediately.
1283
01:05:38,400 --> 01:05:43,120
Not until 1841 did the
revolutionary tin-foil tube of paint
1284
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:46,320
allow painters to carry
their already-prepared colors.
1285
01:05:48,800 --> 01:05:53,440
Viewed as an immigrant, Madame
Vigée-Lebrun lost her citizen's rights.
1286
01:05:53,840 --> 01:05:59,600
In 1793, her husband published a long plea
that his wife be permitted to return to Paris.
1287
01:06:00,760 --> 01:06:05,400
A petition signed by 255 artists
was handed to the authorities.
1288
01:06:05,880 --> 01:06:06,960
To no avail.
1289
01:06:07,360 --> 01:06:10,600
Lebrun was arrested and
incarcerated for several months,
1290
01:06:10,840 --> 01:06:12,960
as was Elisabeth's brother, Etienne.
1291
01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:16,560
Lebrun, to protect himself
and to preserve their assets,
1292
01:06:16,760 --> 01:06:20,160
filed for divorce,
which was granted in 1794.
1293
01:06:20,720 --> 01:06:23,920
In Vienna, she was glad
to find the Comte de Vaudreuil,
1294
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:27,720
whose closeness to the Court
had forced him into exile in 1789.
1295
01:06:28,240 --> 01:06:29,560
But the pleasure of their meeting
1296
01:06:29,640 --> 01:06:31,960
was soon overshadowed
by echoes of the Terror.
1297
01:06:32,880 --> 01:06:36,720
In early 1793, devastating
news spread across Europe.
1298
01:06:37,640 --> 01:06:40,480
"I thus heard of the horrible
occurrence through my brother,
1299
01:06:40,960 --> 01:06:42,560
who wrote it down and sent the letter
1300
01:06:42,640 --> 01:06:44,800
without giving any
further particulars whatever.
1301
01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:46,640
His heart broken,
1302
01:06:46,760 --> 01:06:49,560
he simply wrote that Louis
the XVI and Marie Antoinette
1303
01:06:49,640 --> 01:06:51,200
had perished on the scaffold.
1304
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:54,240
Afterward, from compassion toward myself,
1305
01:06:54,600 --> 01:06:56,960
I always abstained
from putting the least question
1306
01:06:57,040 --> 01:07:00,240
concerning what accompanied
or preceded that awful murder.
1307
01:07:00,680 --> 01:07:01,800
King,
1308
01:07:01,880 --> 01:07:04,240
queen, friend...
1309
01:07:05,720 --> 01:07:07,000
I lost all of them."
1310
01:07:09,440 --> 01:07:12,760
Elisabeth listened to the Russian
ambassador's suggestion that there was
1311
01:07:12,840 --> 01:07:15,040
a new wealthy clientele to be found.
1312
01:07:16,440 --> 01:07:19,040
Despite the distance
and the risks of such a journey,
1313
01:07:19,240 --> 01:07:22,480
she decided to try her hand
in St. Petersburg.
1314
01:07:25,560 --> 01:07:29,120
She left Vienna with a few
letters of recommendation
1315
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:30,280
and a passport,
1316
01:07:30,840 --> 01:07:33,280
and a stage-by-stage itinerary.
1317
01:07:34,200 --> 01:07:37,440
Berlin, Dresden, Postdam, Rheinsberg
1318
01:07:37,520 --> 01:07:40,520
where she stayed with Prince
Henry of Prussia, brother to the king,
1319
01:07:40,880 --> 01:07:44,440
Konigsberg, Riga and finally St Petersburg.
1320
01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:49,600
Three thousand kilometers of
exhausting, sometimes dangerous roads.
1321
01:08:08,960 --> 01:08:10,440
Elisabeth and Brunette
1322
01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:13,960
moved into an apartment located
on the main Winter Palace Square.
1323
01:08:17,120 --> 01:08:21,280
From her windows she could gaze
upon the splendor of the imperial residence
1324
01:08:21,880 --> 01:08:26,320
and the nobility of the angles described
by the avenues that opened up before her.
1325
01:08:40,640 --> 01:08:47,520
She arrived in summer '95, the
end of Catherine the Great's reign.
1326
01:08:50,680 --> 01:08:54,640
It was a time when all French
immigrants looked upon Russia
1327
01:08:54,720 --> 01:08:56,840
as the new land of Renaissance.
1328
01:08:59,880 --> 01:09:02,880
Back then, revolution was a constant.
1329
01:09:05,240 --> 01:09:07,520
All the kings were engaged in wars,
1330
01:09:07,960 --> 01:09:10,880
and the two countries
where peace reigned were Russia
1331
01:09:11,000 --> 01:09:13,840
and the United States
of America, the New World.
1332
01:09:19,880 --> 01:09:23,280
Sophie Friederike Auguste,
the future Catherine the Great,
1333
01:09:23,480 --> 01:09:27,760
was the daughter of German Prince
Christian August von Anhalt-Zerbst.
1334
01:09:28,280 --> 01:09:31,560
At fifteen she married
the future Peter III of Russia.
1335
01:09:31,920 --> 01:09:33,400
Immature and unstable,
1336
01:09:33,560 --> 01:09:36,640
Peter was overthrown six months
into his reign by a coup d'état
1337
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:38,160
organized by his wife,
1338
01:09:38,360 --> 01:09:40,160
and was strangled several days later,
1339
01:09:40,320 --> 01:09:43,120
no doubt by her lover, Count Grigori Orlov.
1340
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:46,240
French-speaking and extremely cultured,
1341
01:09:46,480 --> 01:09:50,720
Catherine became sovereign empress
and reigned for more than thirty years.
1342
01:09:52,200 --> 01:09:54,440
Two days after her arrival
in St. Petersburg,
1343
01:09:54,520 --> 01:09:57,920
Madame Vigée was officially summoned
to an audience with the Czarina.
1344
01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:01,680
Perhaps too sure of her standing
as an international artist,
1345
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:05,640
and wearing a simple white tunic
unsuited to the situation,
1346
01:10:06,000 --> 01:10:08,240
she forgot the ceremonial
kissing of the hand
1347
01:10:08,320 --> 01:10:11,280
and simply bowed,
without kneeling to the Empress.
1348
01:10:11,760 --> 01:10:16,200
This hiccough in protocol was considered
offensive by the Imperial courtiers,
1349
01:10:16,480 --> 01:10:18,520
who became hostile to the portraitist.
1350
01:10:20,320 --> 01:10:23,480
Despite that, her celebrity
as Marie Antoinette's painter
1351
01:10:23,560 --> 01:10:27,560
kindled the interest and curiosity
of the St. Petersburg nobility.
1352
01:10:29,640 --> 01:10:33,480
Madame Le Brun was particularly touched
1353
01:10:33,720 --> 01:10:36,600
by the welcome bestowed on her
by the Russian nobility.
1354
01:10:37,560 --> 01:10:41,360
Princess Dolgorukaya invited her
for a week to her dacha,
1355
01:10:41,800 --> 01:10:45,680
where she made the acquaintance of
someone who was to be very important to her,
1356
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:47,720
Princess Kourakina,
1357
01:10:48,040 --> 01:10:53,080
who would later be the dedicatee of
her memoirs and an extremely loyal friend.
1358
01:10:55,560 --> 01:10:58,560
All the young ladies of the
Russian nobility spoke French,
1359
01:10:58,760 --> 01:11:03,440
and they warmly welcomed this ambassador
of fashion, taste, and French customs.
1360
01:11:07,560 --> 01:11:12,400
In the eighteenth century, all Russians
had to make a pilgrimage to Paris,
1361
01:11:12,880 --> 01:11:14,480
not for studies, obviously.
1362
01:11:15,400 --> 01:11:18,880
In Paris they would learn
how to dress, to speak,
1363
01:11:19,600 --> 01:11:21,080
even how to cough,
1364
01:11:21,520 --> 01:11:24,800
blow one's nose and wear a hat properly.
1365
01:11:25,440 --> 01:11:29,200
In short, to become a perfect Parisian.
1366
01:11:30,480 --> 01:11:35,120
Though her famous Greek supper
made headlines in France in 1789,
1367
01:11:35,280 --> 01:11:37,640
her reputation for high living
crossed borders.
1368
01:11:38,120 --> 01:11:42,760
In St. Petersburg, they still talk
of a party costing 40,000 pounds,
1369
01:11:42,840 --> 01:11:44,480
the equivalent of 400,000 euros
1370
01:11:45,240 --> 01:11:48,200
whereas Elisabeth speaks only of 15 pounds.
1371
01:11:48,720 --> 01:11:52,080
She dressed her models in the
Greek style, significant in Russia,
1372
01:11:52,160 --> 01:11:54,440
and that she herself claimed
to have made fashionable.
1373
01:11:54,960 --> 01:12:00,920
The artist was able to create
for herself a certain dress style,
1374
01:12:01,320 --> 01:12:03,600
expressed in such a way that her charm
1375
01:12:03,680 --> 01:12:06,280
and the attraction
she exerted over her circle
1376
01:12:06,520 --> 01:12:09,680
encouraged the desire to imitate her.
1377
01:12:13,760 --> 01:12:16,440
The mid-eighteenth century
witnessed an explosion
1378
01:12:16,520 --> 01:12:17,600
of Grecomania.
1379
01:12:17,680 --> 01:12:20,360
With the spread of engravings
that reproduced frescoes
1380
01:12:20,440 --> 01:12:22,640
found in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
1381
01:12:23,080 --> 01:12:26,480
Even the revolutionary celebrations
were inspired by antiquity.
1382
01:12:29,200 --> 01:12:31,040
Previously the child
1383
01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:33,080
wasn't really thought of as a person.
1384
01:12:33,640 --> 01:12:36,080
They weren't even sure
whether it had a soul.
1385
01:12:36,560 --> 01:12:39,520
This idea of a child
as a person in their own right
1386
01:12:39,760 --> 01:12:42,760
gradually led to more
and more family portraits.
1387
01:12:45,080 --> 01:12:47,640
The Empress, who loved
her two granddaughters,
1388
01:12:47,920 --> 01:12:50,400
the archduchesses Elena and Alexandra,
1389
01:12:50,640 --> 01:12:52,200
placed an order for their portrait.
1390
01:12:52,520 --> 01:12:54,880
Elisabeth painted them as rather languid,
1391
01:12:55,040 --> 01:12:57,400
in an atmosphere of innocence,
with bare arms.
1392
01:12:58,080 --> 01:13:00,680
Catherine took great offense of that.
1393
01:13:01,320 --> 01:13:03,760
And she complained about it,
and Vigée Le Brun
1394
01:13:03,840 --> 01:13:05,520
had to scrape it off the canvas
1395
01:13:05,600 --> 01:13:06,880
and start all over again.
1396
01:13:07,080 --> 01:13:09,800
It just would not do.
1397
01:13:10,120 --> 01:13:13,680
Even the portrait of these little girls
1398
01:13:13,840 --> 01:13:16,560
had to embody the power of the nation.
1399
01:13:17,360 --> 01:13:21,520
As she herself embodied the
strength of the world's greatest empire.
1400
01:13:24,720 --> 01:13:26,120
It was during this same period
1401
01:13:26,400 --> 01:13:30,120
that she met Stanislas
Poniatowski, deposed King of Poland,
1402
01:13:30,480 --> 01:13:32,800
then under house arrest in St. Petersburg.
1403
01:13:33,120 --> 01:13:34,520
Sent by his uncle to Russia,
1404
01:13:34,720 --> 01:13:37,720
Stanislas benefited from the
protection of Catherine the Great,
1405
01:13:38,000 --> 01:13:39,800
who became besotted with the young man
1406
01:13:39,960 --> 01:13:41,960
and had him restored to the Polish throne.
1407
01:13:42,080 --> 01:13:44,280
He was the last king
of an independent Poland.
1408
01:13:46,240 --> 01:13:47,240
She told an anecdote.
1409
01:13:47,360 --> 01:13:50,880
One day, when she was painting,
he came to her workshop
1410
01:13:51,160 --> 01:13:54,640
and she called out: "I am not at home!"
1411
01:13:56,560 --> 01:13:57,640
The king left.
1412
01:13:59,320 --> 01:14:01,880
She then realized how bold she had been
1413
01:14:02,320 --> 01:14:06,760
and, in turn, went to see
him to proffer her excuses.
1414
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:14,320
He told her he quite understood how a
very busy artist shouldn't be disturbed,
1415
01:14:14,920 --> 01:14:16,640
and wasn't at all angry.
1416
01:14:18,840 --> 01:14:23,800
And there we have an insight into the
character of this man she particularly liked.
1417
01:14:24,880 --> 01:14:27,680
She painted a very flattering
portrait of him in words.
1418
01:14:27,920 --> 01:14:30,840
"Stanislas was tall, gentle, kind, etc."
1419
01:14:31,480 --> 01:14:34,560
You can tell that theirs
was a beautiful friendship.
1420
01:14:35,680 --> 01:14:37,560
Despite her mother's wishes
to the contrary,
1421
01:14:37,640 --> 01:14:42,600
Brunette was determined to marry a young,
impecunious secretary from St. Petersburg
1422
01:14:42,680 --> 01:14:45,240
of Italian origin, Gaetano Nigris.
1423
01:14:45,800 --> 01:14:47,840
The rows became increasingly violent.
1424
01:14:48,640 --> 01:14:50,600
Madame Le Brun gave in to her daughter
1425
01:14:50,680 --> 01:14:53,440
and obtained her husband's
consent to Julie's marriage.
1426
01:14:56,640 --> 01:14:57,920
"Owing to the distance,
1427
01:14:58,080 --> 01:14:59,840
her father's answer was long delayed,
1428
01:15:00,080 --> 01:15:03,160
and someone convinced her
that I had only written to Mr. Lebrun
1429
01:15:03,240 --> 01:15:06,520
to prevent him from assenting
to what she called her felicity.
1430
01:15:08,120 --> 01:15:09,400
She said to me one day,
1431
01:15:09,960 --> 01:15:13,160
'I post your letters, but I am sure
you write others to the contrary.'
1432
01:15:16,760 --> 01:15:18,640
I was stunned and heartbroken,
1433
01:15:19,920 --> 01:15:22,640
when at that very moment
the postman arrived with a letter
1434
01:15:22,720 --> 01:15:24,360
from Mr. Lebrun, giving his consent."
1435
01:15:30,360 --> 01:15:34,160
"But the cruel child showed not the
least gratitude at what I had done for her
1436
01:15:34,240 --> 01:15:37,680
in immolating all my wishes,
hopes and dislikes.
1437
01:15:39,200 --> 01:15:42,160
The wedding was nevertheless
enacted a few days later."
1438
01:15:44,120 --> 01:15:46,240
After almost seven years in Russia,
1439
01:15:46,320 --> 01:15:51,440
Madame Vigée, tempted to settle in St.
Petersburg for good, bitterly faced the facts.
1440
01:15:54,320 --> 01:15:58,320
Towards the end of her stay, orders
were fewer than at the beginning,
1441
01:15:58,520 --> 01:16:02,680
because in fact there weren't
ever that many prospective clients.
1442
01:16:15,480 --> 01:16:17,680
The break-up with Julie was complete.
1443
01:16:17,880 --> 01:16:20,200
Mother and daughter
no longer spoke to one another.
1444
01:16:20,880 --> 01:16:22,560
She held no official position,
1445
01:16:22,800 --> 01:16:24,720
her clientele was becoming scarcer
1446
01:16:25,000 --> 01:16:27,920
and she had to go to Moscow
to consolidate her fortune.
1447
01:16:28,720 --> 01:16:32,520
Her health deteriorated and she
became prone to fits of melancholy.
1448
01:16:43,320 --> 01:16:47,600
In June 1800, she learned that she
had been removed from the list of émigrés,
1449
01:16:47,880 --> 01:16:50,800
meaning that nothing stood in
the way of a return to France.
1450
01:16:51,880 --> 01:16:54,960
Despite regrets, as she thought
of Russia as her second home,
1451
01:16:55,320 --> 01:16:57,640
she made up her mind to return to Paris.
1452
01:17:02,080 --> 01:17:04,840
She returned to France alone,
1453
01:17:05,160 --> 01:17:10,360
and was amazed how much the smiling,
pleasant landscapes of her outward journey
1454
01:17:11,000 --> 01:17:14,800
now seemed dull, sad and melancholy.
1455
01:17:18,400 --> 01:17:24,440
"A landscape is a state of the soul," she
would say, so for her it was a sad return.
1456
01:17:31,760 --> 01:17:33,480
After a long and arduous trip,
1457
01:17:33,560 --> 01:17:38,680
Elisabeth entered the capital with
a heavy heart on January 181802.
1458
01:17:39,320 --> 01:17:42,760
Jean Baptiste was waiting for
her on the steps of the Hôtel Lubert.
1459
01:17:43,560 --> 01:17:46,000
Despite their divorce,
the emotion was palpable.
1460
01:17:46,840 --> 01:17:49,440
That night he made
a laconic entry in his notebook.
1461
01:17:50,400 --> 01:17:52,480
"Arrival in Paris of Madame Vigée.
1462
01:17:53,240 --> 01:17:58,840
Her absence, from her departure
on October 6 to January 181802,
1463
01:17:59,040 --> 01:18:02,680
lasted 12 years, three
months and twelve days."
1464
01:18:07,440 --> 01:18:09,480
She realized that the world had changed.
1465
01:18:10,360 --> 01:18:14,080
She could not get used to
Parisian life, to French life.
1466
01:18:14,600 --> 01:18:19,880
Customs had changed; it was no
longer the society she had known.
1467
01:18:22,840 --> 01:18:26,560
After the coup d'étatof November 91799,
1468
01:18:26,760 --> 01:18:28,680
which overthrew the French Directory,
1469
01:18:28,920 --> 01:18:30,880
the Constitution of the Year VIII
1470
01:18:31,000 --> 01:18:33,880
established an authoritarian
political regime
1471
01:18:34,040 --> 01:18:36,920
headed by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte,
1472
01:18:37,240 --> 01:18:39,120
a brilliant general swept to prominence
1473
01:18:39,200 --> 01:18:41,920
by the success of his campaigns
in Italy and Egypt.
1474
01:18:42,560 --> 01:18:47,880
Five years later, in 1804, Bonaparte
declared himself emperor of the French people
1475
01:18:47,960 --> 01:18:49,840
and became Napoleon I.
1476
01:18:54,720 --> 01:18:57,960
A new nobility was established
in the mansions of Paris.
1477
01:18:58,600 --> 01:19:02,680
But Madame Le Brun, devoted to
the Bourbons and the Ancien Régime,
1478
01:19:03,000 --> 01:19:04,560
couldn't get used to their ways
1479
01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:08,400
and displayed a hostility that
soon displeased the new emperor.
1480
01:19:10,640 --> 01:19:14,000
She stays in Paris just a short time...
1481
01:19:14,880 --> 01:19:18,400
and she fulfills several commissions
1482
01:19:18,480 --> 01:19:21,320
she had received while she was in Russia,
1483
01:19:21,400 --> 01:19:24,400
and she made pastels studies
1484
01:19:25,000 --> 01:19:28,880
of certain people that she
produced oil portraits of,
1485
01:19:28,960 --> 01:19:31,640
and then sent them back
to Russia and to Germany.
1486
01:19:35,600 --> 01:19:39,000
In late 1802, Madame Vigée
announced her intention
1487
01:19:39,080 --> 01:19:41,040
to take a two-year trip to England,
1488
01:19:41,320 --> 01:19:43,280
in the hope of finding a new clientele.
1489
01:19:46,760 --> 01:19:50,040
She picked up her brushes
1490
01:19:50,120 --> 01:19:52,880
and her paint box and traveled to London.
1491
01:19:53,320 --> 01:19:56,640
At the time, England boasted
some eight hundred portraitists,
1492
01:19:56,840 --> 01:19:58,160
competition was fierce
1493
01:19:58,320 --> 01:20:01,920
and the artist's extremely expensive
fees tended to work against her.
1494
01:20:03,080 --> 01:20:07,560
Very soon, Madame Vigée Lebrun
stepped back from English society,
1495
01:20:08,000 --> 01:20:12,280
which she found profoundly
dull and monotonous and said,
1496
01:20:12,360 --> 01:20:15,240
"I am not surprised English
adopted the word 'spleen'.
1497
01:20:15,320 --> 01:20:17,360
Your mirth equates to our boredom."
1498
01:20:18,400 --> 01:20:20,840
A cabal headed by the painter Hopner
1499
01:20:20,920 --> 01:20:24,400
did not help her status as a foreigner
in the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1500
01:20:25,080 --> 01:20:28,240
Hopner never got anywhere
near the prices that she got.
1501
01:20:29,800 --> 01:20:31,560
So he was very, very upset,
1502
01:20:32,680 --> 01:20:35,400
and he was something of a poet,
so he wrote a poem,
1503
01:20:36,280 --> 01:20:37,960
and he really gives her...
1504
01:20:40,000 --> 01:20:42,160
like we say here, he gives her what for.
1505
01:20:45,280 --> 01:20:48,480
As the Emperor wished to
portray the members of his dynasty,
1506
01:20:48,680 --> 01:20:52,360
Madame Vigée, in Paris once
more, received an official commission
1507
01:20:52,520 --> 01:20:55,720
for the portrait of his sister
Caroline, Princess Murat.
1508
01:20:56,440 --> 01:20:59,920
The artist, unable to refuse,
grudgingly did her duty.
1509
01:21:00,480 --> 01:21:03,440
The thoughtless Caroline's
repeated lateness for her sittings
1510
01:21:03,520 --> 01:21:06,000
exasperated the portraitist, who observed,
1511
01:21:06,080 --> 01:21:10,840
"I have painted real princesses who
never worried me, and never made me wait."
1512
01:21:13,440 --> 01:21:17,680
In the summer of 1807, Paris
was invaded by a stifling heat.
1513
01:21:18,240 --> 01:21:20,920
Madame Vigée bowed to the Alpine fashion
1514
01:21:21,040 --> 01:21:22,960
and organized a trip to Switzerland.
1515
01:21:23,440 --> 01:21:26,720
Twice, in 1807 and 1808,
1516
01:21:27,440 --> 01:21:30,320
she travels a different circuit
through Switzerland.
1517
01:21:32,240 --> 01:21:34,920
On this occasion
she stayed with Madame de Staël.
1518
01:21:35,600 --> 01:21:39,560
Germaine de Staël was living in
semi-exile in the Château de Coppet.
1519
01:21:39,920 --> 01:21:42,880
The literary and philosophical
salon she held in Paris
1520
01:21:43,080 --> 01:21:45,160
had aroused the suspicions of the emperor,
1521
01:21:45,240 --> 01:21:47,520
who forbade her from re-entering France.
1522
01:21:48,040 --> 01:21:51,160
Elisabeth and Madame de Staël
shared a love of the arts
1523
01:21:51,320 --> 01:21:53,440
and a hostility towards Napoleon.
1524
01:21:53,920 --> 01:21:56,720
The author of Corinne
ou I'Italie and the portraitist
1525
01:21:56,920 --> 01:22:02,280
were two illustrious women, defenders of
the Ancien Régime and totally independent.
1526
01:22:02,400 --> 01:22:07,480
On April 31814, the Senate
proclaimed the deposition of Napoleon.
1527
01:22:08,320 --> 01:22:11,920
Charles, Count of Artois
and brother of Louis XVI,
1528
01:22:12,000 --> 01:22:14,880
preceded his brother the future Louis XVIII
1529
01:22:15,000 --> 01:22:18,480
and made a triumphant entrance
into Paris on April 12.
1530
01:22:18,680 --> 01:22:23,440
Loyal royalist Madame le Brun left her house
in Louveciennes and hastened to the capital,
1531
01:22:23,760 --> 01:22:27,120
where she cried tears of joy for
the restoration of the Bourbons.
1532
01:22:32,480 --> 01:22:35,920
But her happiness was short-lived,
shattered by news of her daughter,
1533
01:22:36,000 --> 01:22:38,400
Brunette, who had separated
from her husband
1534
01:22:38,520 --> 01:22:41,120
and was living in a modest
boarding house in Paris.
1535
01:22:41,480 --> 01:22:43,800
She was slowly sinking into poverty.
1536
01:22:44,440 --> 01:22:46,640
The links between mother
and daughter had weakened.
1537
01:22:47,120 --> 01:22:52,240
Destroyed by drink and occasional
prostitution, Julie had contracted syphilis.
1538
01:22:52,760 --> 01:22:56,520
Informed of her plight, Madame
Lebrun hurried to her bedside.
1539
01:23:00,240 --> 01:23:03,000
"I hastened to her as soon
as I heard of her illness,
1540
01:23:04,920 --> 01:23:07,280
but the disease progressed rapidly, and...
1541
01:23:08,520 --> 01:23:12,560
I cannot tell what I felt when
all hope of saving her was gone."
1542
01:23:19,440 --> 01:23:21,520
"When, going to see her the last day,
1543
01:23:22,600 --> 01:23:25,640
my eyes fell upon that
dreadfully sunken face,
1544
01:23:26,000 --> 01:23:27,120
I fainted away."
1545
01:23:41,680 --> 01:23:43,320
"The next day I was childless!
1546
01:23:44,400 --> 01:23:49,040
I saw her again, I still see
her, in the days of her childhood.
1547
01:23:50,000 --> 01:23:53,880
Alas! She was so young!
Why did she not survive me?"
1548
01:23:55,160 --> 01:23:58,760
Madame Lebrun didn't understand
what mistakes she had made with Julie.
1549
01:23:59,400 --> 01:24:01,800
Didn't she try to pass on
her passion for painting?
1550
01:24:02,880 --> 01:24:07,280
Closeness turned to incomprehension,
and then into violent disputes.
1551
01:24:07,600 --> 01:24:12,160
The independent young woman couldn't
find her place alongside her too-talented,
1552
01:24:12,280 --> 01:24:13,680
too-famous mother.
1553
01:24:14,320 --> 01:24:16,720
Madame Lebrun looked
to her nieces for comfort,
1554
01:24:16,960 --> 01:24:20,200
and passed on to them her
precious advice on portrait painting.
1555
01:24:22,920 --> 01:24:26,080
It is interesting to note just how much,
1556
01:24:26,360 --> 01:24:30,720
when you look at this work and read the
advice she gives to Eugénie Tripier Lefranc,
1557
01:24:31,280 --> 01:24:35,400
her counsel mirrors her execution.
1558
01:24:36,200 --> 01:24:42,760
She says, "The shadows must be both
strong and transparent, not thickened,
1559
01:24:43,040 --> 01:24:48,720
and in a mature tone, accompanied
by firm, lively touches in the cavities,
1560
01:24:48,800 --> 01:24:51,960
such as the eye-socket,
the recess of the nostrils,
1561
01:24:52,040 --> 01:24:55,200
and the shadowy internal parts of the ear."
1562
01:24:55,640 --> 01:24:59,040
And it's true that when you approach
and study the recess of the eye,
1563
01:24:59,360 --> 01:25:02,440
you have a whole series
of stroke in red and black chalk
1564
01:25:03,000 --> 01:25:04,600
that provide the eyes with their shadow.
1565
01:25:09,160 --> 01:25:11,800
It seems to me that, as a technical artist,
1566
01:25:11,880 --> 01:25:14,080
Vigée-Lebrun was extremely gifted.
1567
01:25:14,880 --> 01:25:20,840
For a woman who did not
have formal training,
1568
01:25:22,080 --> 01:25:25,440
she is an impeccable technician.
1569
01:25:25,720 --> 01:25:31,200
And one of the things about her works
is that if they hadn't been interfered with,
1570
01:25:32,000 --> 01:25:33,800
or suffered some accidental damage,
1571
01:25:33,880 --> 01:25:36,800
they're likely to be in an extremely
good state of preservation.
1572
01:25:37,120 --> 01:25:43,920
She must have known a lot about color, because
you rarely see any of these discolorations,
1573
01:25:44,280 --> 01:25:46,960
which are caused
by alterations in the material.
1574
01:25:47,600 --> 01:25:52,160
France underwent another
revolution: the July Revolution of 1830.
1575
01:25:52,720 --> 01:25:56,040
The people of Paris rose up
against the authority of Charles X,
1576
01:25:56,480 --> 01:25:59,320
barricaded the streets and
clashed with the armed forces,
1577
01:25:59,440 --> 01:26:01,360
resulting in one thousand deaths.
1578
01:26:02,200 --> 01:26:07,040
The son of Philippe Egalité, who had
voted for the execution of King Louis XVI,
1579
01:26:07,480 --> 01:26:10,000
took the throne
under the name Louis Philippe.
1580
01:26:10,360 --> 01:26:13,640
It was the start of a new era, and
no longer that of Madame Le Brun.
1581
01:26:14,240 --> 01:26:16,920
She gave herself over
to memories of happier times.
1582
01:26:17,920 --> 01:26:21,560
For a dozen years, she took notes
and wrote, aided by her nieces,
1583
01:26:21,720 --> 01:26:23,160
who copied out the manuscript.
1584
01:26:23,640 --> 01:26:25,720
She appended corrections in the margin.
1585
01:26:27,320 --> 01:26:32,400
Presumably, she began to write her
memoirs when she wrote her first will.
1586
01:26:34,160 --> 01:26:36,680
It's as if she felt at peace with herself
1587
01:26:37,120 --> 01:26:41,600
and that it was time to let
herself write down her memories.
1588
01:26:44,080 --> 01:26:46,520
I think it was a much deeper desire,
1589
01:26:47,040 --> 01:26:51,920
that of wanting to live a second time
and to relive those moments of happiness,
1590
01:26:52,680 --> 01:26:56,320
because there's something very characteristic
in the writing of these memoirs
1591
01:26:56,560 --> 01:27:00,560
that radiates a glow
of happiness, of discovery,
1592
01:27:00,800 --> 01:27:02,960
and the most negative things in her life
1593
01:27:03,040 --> 01:27:06,560
were only to be found
in the accompanying documents.
1594
01:27:10,960 --> 01:27:17,360
So she wanted to leave a portrait
of herself that she herself sanctioned,
1595
01:27:17,600 --> 01:27:22,280
and so she started, she listened to the
advisers and she started to write them.
1596
01:27:24,120 --> 01:27:26,280
It used to be said
that she didn't write them,
1597
01:27:26,360 --> 01:27:28,760
that there were ghost writers
who worked for her.
1598
01:27:29,360 --> 01:27:35,720
This is not true because we know that there
are big batches of her original manuscripts.
1599
01:27:36,800 --> 01:27:40,960
Though these memoirs are a precious document
in terms of the worlds she encountered,
1600
01:27:41,240 --> 01:27:43,880
they are equally important
as an account of her own life.
1601
01:27:44,320 --> 01:27:47,360
Madame Vigée Le Brun recalled
a scene with Marie Antoinette
1602
01:27:47,600 --> 01:27:50,080
whose veracity still causes controversy.
1603
01:27:52,080 --> 01:27:55,600
"One day I happened to miss the
appointment she had given me for a sitting.
1604
01:27:56,200 --> 01:28:00,440
Far gone in my second pregnancy,
I had suddenly become unwell.
1605
01:28:02,200 --> 01:28:05,400
The next day I hastened to
Versailles to offer my excuses.
1606
01:28:05,880 --> 01:28:07,640
Her Majesty was finishing her toilet.
1607
01:28:08,000 --> 01:28:11,320
My heart was beating violently,
for I knew that I was in the wrong.
1608
01:28:16,960 --> 01:28:19,840
But the Queen looked up at me
and said most amiably,
1609
01:28:20,400 --> 01:28:23,920
'I was waiting for you all the morning
yesterday. What happened to you?'
1610
01:28:24,800 --> 01:28:26,920
'I am sorry to say,
Your Majesty, ' I replied,
1611
01:28:27,400 --> 01:28:31,200
'I was so ill that I was unable to
comply with Your Majesty's commands.
1612
01:28:31,600 --> 01:28:35,120
I am here to receive more now,
and then I will immediately retire.'
1613
01:28:35,640 --> 01:28:37,960
'No, no! Do not go!' exclaimed the Queen.
1614
01:28:38,200 --> 01:28:41,000
'I do not want you to have made
your journey for nothing!'
1615
01:28:41,440 --> 01:28:44,320
She revoked the order for her
carriage and gave me a sitting.
1616
01:28:45,320 --> 01:28:49,000
I remember that, in my confusion and
my eagerness to make a fitting response
1617
01:28:49,520 --> 01:28:53,080
to her kind words, I opened
my paint-box so excitedly
1618
01:28:53,240 --> 01:28:54,840
that I spilled my brushes on the floor.
1619
01:28:55,520 --> 01:28:59,320
I stooped down to pick them up.
'Never mind, never mind, ' said the Queen,
1620
01:28:59,600 --> 01:29:03,920
and, for aught I could say, she
insisted on gathering them all up herself."
1621
01:29:15,200 --> 01:29:18,800
Naturally, it's good for Vigée Le
Brun's ego to say that the queen
1622
01:29:18,880 --> 01:29:22,440
picked up her brushes, and that's
what you'd put in your memoirs.
1623
01:29:23,360 --> 01:29:25,520
Many testimonies support the assertion
1624
01:29:25,600 --> 01:29:27,720
that Marie Antoinette was a simple woman,
1625
01:29:27,920 --> 01:29:31,960
close to her suppliers, who
sometimes dispensed with protocol.
1626
01:29:32,120 --> 01:29:34,560
So this anecdote seems probable.
1627
01:29:35,120 --> 01:29:36,600
Its inclusion in her memoirs
1628
01:29:36,680 --> 01:29:41,320
indicates that Vigée Le Brun
attached a lot of importance to this, too.
1629
01:29:42,520 --> 01:29:47,080
There's a tendency to embellish the past,
1630
01:29:47,160 --> 01:29:48,320
that's quite natural,
1631
01:29:48,520 --> 01:29:50,440
and to favor the good memories.
1632
01:29:50,800 --> 01:29:53,800
You can at once be quite sincere
and yet, in reality,
1633
01:29:53,960 --> 01:29:56,920
it may be a lie from a
strictly historical perspective.
1634
01:29:57,200 --> 01:30:02,280
But this doesn't mean
her version is insincere.
1635
01:30:03,000 --> 01:30:07,200
Aged almost eighty, Madame Vigée
was still a famous personality in Paris.
1636
01:30:07,680 --> 01:30:13,000
Summer Sundays in Louveciennes, winter in her
Parisian apartment in the St Lazare neighborhood,
1637
01:30:13,160 --> 01:30:17,480
she threw parties where the younger
generations, drawn by her reputation,
1638
01:30:17,560 --> 01:30:19,160
would love to hear her anecdotes.
1639
01:30:19,400 --> 01:30:24,040
Chateaubriand, Vigny, Musset and
Balzac seemed fascinated by this woman,
1640
01:30:24,320 --> 01:30:25,960
a brilliant conversationalist,
1641
01:30:26,120 --> 01:30:29,640
who was once painter to Marie
Antoinette and the courts of Europe.
1642
01:30:30,800 --> 01:30:35,240
She had a poetic sensibility
and received Vigny at her salon.
1643
01:30:35,680 --> 01:30:37,520
She received Chateaubriand,
1644
01:30:37,800 --> 01:30:39,760
she liked reading Lamartine,
1645
01:30:39,960 --> 01:30:45,480
although she didn't really appreciate
Victor Hugo's novel, Notre Dame de Paris.
1646
01:30:47,320 --> 01:30:51,320
Politically, she resembles
a person like Chateaubriand,
1647
01:30:52,080 --> 01:30:56,040
who was very much in favor
of a constitutional monarchy.
1648
01:30:56,240 --> 01:30:59,920
I think she would have preferred
the old regime as it was,
1649
01:31:00,680 --> 01:31:03,840
but a constitutional monarchy
would have worked for her also.
1650
01:31:06,000 --> 01:31:11,840
This sensitivity to new forms,
and new poetry, changed her taste.
1651
01:31:13,320 --> 01:31:15,240
She was on the lookout
for what was happening.
1652
01:31:15,680 --> 01:31:17,720
She heard of Chopin, and things like that.
1653
01:31:18,560 --> 01:31:21,600
It was her musical gateway
to what we might call modernity.
1654
01:31:22,240 --> 01:31:25,640
It heralded the Romantic
generation, which interested her.
1655
01:31:26,480 --> 01:31:29,200
Artists of 1840 rediscovered the charm
1656
01:31:29,280 --> 01:31:31,000
of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
1657
01:31:31,400 --> 01:31:33,280
and embraced Neo Gothic fashion.
1658
01:31:33,520 --> 01:31:35,960
In painting, the ruins of cathedrals
1659
01:31:36,040 --> 01:31:38,280
replaced Hubert Robert's Roman remains.
1660
01:31:42,160 --> 01:31:44,960
In tandem
with the Troubadourstyle nostalgia,
1661
01:31:45,080 --> 01:31:50,360
mid-nineteenth-century France was undergoing
profound social, economic and political change.
1662
01:31:51,240 --> 01:31:52,800
The accession of the bourgeoisie
1663
01:31:52,880 --> 01:31:54,880
to manufacturing and financial affairs
1664
01:31:55,120 --> 01:31:57,600
proved a huge shot in the arm
for economic growth.
1665
01:31:58,080 --> 01:32:00,400
This was the Industrial Revolution,
1666
01:32:00,520 --> 01:32:03,800
which was accompanied by the rise
of railways and technical advances
1667
01:32:03,880 --> 01:32:06,680
in new energies, textiles and metallurgy.
1668
01:32:09,360 --> 01:32:11,880
It might be fun to imagine
the doubtful reaction
1669
01:32:11,960 --> 01:32:16,160
of Queen Marie Antoinette's portraitist
faced with these curious miniatures
1670
01:32:16,240 --> 01:32:20,760
bearing the strange name
daguerreotypes, which first appeared in 1835.
1671
01:32:21,960 --> 01:32:25,640
The static bodies, frozen
expressions, poor quality rendering
1672
01:32:25,880 --> 01:32:30,520
and the crudeness of reality probably
inspired thoughts of the end of a world,
1673
01:32:30,880 --> 01:32:33,680
her world, that of a
talented portrait artist
1674
01:32:33,840 --> 01:32:38,120
who knew so well how to embellish
the face and to convey the soul.
1675
01:32:41,680 --> 01:32:46,520
She passed away quietly in
April 1842, attended by her nieces.
1676
01:32:47,560 --> 01:32:52,440
Having painted more than 660
portraits, known fame and criticism,
1677
01:32:52,600 --> 01:32:55,760
luxury and exile,
monarchies and revolutions,
1678
01:32:56,120 --> 01:32:59,520
the greatest artists and the most
powerful Europeans of her time,
1679
01:33:00,040 --> 01:33:03,160
having covered countless
tens of thousands of kilometers,
1680
01:33:03,480 --> 01:33:06,160
the tireless traveler,
eighty-seven years old,
1681
01:33:06,440 --> 01:33:13,400
chose this epitaph for her grave
in Louveciennes: Here at last I rest.
1682
01:33:14,305 --> 01:34:14,870
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