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[narrator] Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

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is France’s last great portraitist.

The most famous in Europe.

A child prodigy, taught by her father,

she starts painting professionally at the age of 14.

Ambitious and independent, she gains access

to the highest levels of power by becoming portraitist

to Queen Marie-Antoinette.

Energetic and determined,

she’ll produce over 660 portraits.

Because of her close ties to the royal court,

she’s forced to flee into exile during the French Revolution.

This period of exile,

which she imagined would last only six months,

will last 13 years,

taking her to all the royal courts of Europe.

She’ll live in Italy, Austria, England and Russia.

A friend of the rich and powerful

and the greatest artists of her time,

she’ll be acclaimed in all the royal courts

and art academies of Europe.

Her destiny is that of a talented and free woman

who managed to combine success and fortune.

She’ll declare in her memoirs,

“Before the revolution, women ruled...

the revolution dethroned them.”

[Elisabeth]“My very dear friend.

You urge me so warmly to write my memoirs for you...

that I have decided to satisfy your desire.

Imagine what it will mean to my heart...

to recall the various events I have witnessed...

and the friends who exist no more

save in my thought!

Nevertheless,

the task will be an easy one,

for my heart loves to remember...

and in my hours of loneliness

those dear departed friends surround me still,

so vivid do they appear to my imagination.”

[narrator] Louise Elisabeth Vigée

was born in Paris in April 1755,

a few months before Marie-Antoinette.

18th Century France saw the growth of a practice

of major significance: wet-nursing.

Middle class women,

the wives of artisans and merchants

send their children to neighboring villages

in order to be free to carry out their activities.

Shortly after her birth,

little Elisabeth will be entrusted to a wet nurse

in the Epernon region of Normandy.

In 1761, her father Louis, comes to take her home.

Elisabeth, now aged 6,

discovers a father she doesn’t know

and has to say goodbye to her foster family.

She’ll spend a few weeks in the family apartment

in Paris, rue de Cléry,

where she’ll discover the day-to-day life

of her parents, her brother Etienne,

3 years younger than herself,

and especially, her father’s work.

[Xavier] Her father was a pastel portraitist,

a member of the Academy of Saint Luke artists’ guild.

He was a man who sought out the company of musicians,

poets and wits.

[narrator] Court life

and the growth of a wealthy Parisian middle class

account for the increasing popularity of the portrait.

Latour, Van Lo, Greuze or Drouais

will be the fashionable masters of this art.

[Katharine] Everyone wanted their portrait painted,

there was no other way

to preserve your likeness...

in that age.

[narrator] Pastels artist, Louis Vigée,

whilst not having the genius of the great masters,

has acquired a fairly large clientele.

Artists, nobles and burghers all sit for him.

[Elisabeth] “I mention these facts

to show what an inborn passion for the art

I possessed.

My father, whose name was Vigée,

made very good pastel drawings.

He did some portraits

which would have been worthy of the famous Latour.

But, coming back

to the pleasures I enjoyed in my childhood home,

I must tell you that my father allowed me

to paint several heads in pastels...

and also...

to dabble with his crayons all day.”

[Joseph] Her father adored her, and...

he would give her free reign

when he would let her in his studio,

take his pastel boxes and start drawing.

[Geneviève] Her father’s very encouraging of her talent

and one day, after seeing a drawing she did

of a bearded man, exclaims,

“You will be a painter, child, if there ever was one!”

[narrator] After a few short weeks

spent in the family home,

Elisabeth is sent to boarding school

at the Trinity Convent in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.

At six years old, she’s one of its youngest pupils.

While boys are educated in schools

or through private tutors,

girls from the upper and middle classes

are mainly educated in convents.

They are taught very little.

Biblical history, the basics of sewing and writing

in order to prepare them for their future roles

as companionable wives and mothers.

At the age of 11, she leaves the convent.

Her father undertakes to train her

and sends her to one of his friends,

a painter called Davesne,

who teaches her how to set a palette.

These future artists in painting, pastels or drawing,

are going to meet other masters during their youth.

Madame Vigée-Lebrun will have a lot of admiration

for artists such as Jean-Baptiste Greuze

and Joseph Verne.

She’ll observe them, question them,

and listen to their advice on how to improve.

[narrator] Elisabeth continues her apprenticeship

but is soon going to lose her first teacher.

[Elisabeth] “I had just spent one happy year

in my parents' house when my father fell ill.

My mother wept day and night.

As for myself,

I will not attempt to describe my desolation.

I was about to lose the best of fathers,

my support, my guide,

the one whose indulgence encouraged my first attempts!”

[narrator] In order to distract her from her grief,

her mother, Jeanne, takes her to see

the private collections of masterpieces

exhibited to the public,

such as that of the Duke of Orleans,

where Elisabeth gets to know the great European painters

and develops her taste.

[Joseph] She had no real formal training

she took courses here and there, dabbled in...

but you can’t say she’s self-taught actually.

[narrator] At the age of twelve,

in order to help her mother

and pay for her young brother’s schooling,

Elisabeth is obliged to work.

[Geneviève] Her talent soon becomes noticed,

in particular through two portraits,

which reveal her precocious artistic maturity.

[narrator] The portrait of her brother, Etienne,

dressed as a schoolboy,

which she’s believed to have painted

at the age of 14,

and that of her mother, are so well-done

that they’re talked about in Paris.

Commissions soon begin to flow in.

A year after the death of her husband,

Jeanne Maissin marries a rich jeweler,

Jacques François Le Sèvre

to whom Elisabeth and Etienne are openly hostile.

When the young girl starts to receive payment

for her first commissioned portraits,

Le Sèvre considers that this money belongs to him

and he uses it for himself.

[narrator] Elisabeth rapidly builds up

a large clientele of artists, burghers and nobles.

Her fees increase

and she starts earning a lot of money.

[soft music]

For the gentlemen models who gaze at her too insistently,

she devises a clever trick to turn their eyes away from her.

[Elisabeth] As for those gentlemen,

as soon as I realized they wished to make eyes at me

I would paint them with their gaze averted,

which prevents the sitter from looking at the painter.

At the least movement of their pupils in my direction,

I would say: "I am doing the eyes now."

This would vex them a little, as you can imagine,

and my mother, who was always present

and whom I had taken into my confidence,

would laugh to herself.”

[Danièle] In fact Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

practically invents this masculine theme,

that of the pre-romantic character

gazing off into the distance,

eyes raised up to heaven, his thoughts elsewhere.

In this way, she diverts the man’s eyes

and possible amorous intentions away from her.

So she shows intelligence there too,

wiliness I’d say,

in the way she deals with this situation.

[narrator] Despite her numerous commissions,

Elisabeth finds time to enjoy the favorite pastime

of 18th Century Parisians,

going out for a stroll.

Nobles and gentry, artisans, merchants and scamps

pass each other by in the Tuileries Gardens,

in the squares of the Champs Elysées,

in the Luxembourg and Palais Royal Gardens

where Elisabeth and her family live.

When out strolling, you have to ‘see’

and especially ‘be seen’.

Fashionable gathering places are created

and last for a brief time, such as the Coliseum.

Located in one of the Champs-Elysées squares,

this amusement site, illuminated by 2,000 candles,

could hold 40,000 people.

Its attractions included cafés, circuses,

trinket and curiosity shops, a show hall, a ball,

and a fireworks display.

During these strolls,

Elisabeth attracts a lot of attention.

It’s at this time that two women,

important for her future destiny,

will cross her path.

[Geneviève] The Duchess of Chartres

who you might say is her neighbor

since she resides in the Palais Royal gardens,

will ask her to come and paint her portrait

as well as that of her friends.

[narrator] The Duchess of Chartres,

future Duchess of Orleans, is a patron of the arts.

It’s she who’ll introduce the milliner and dress-maker,

Rose Bertin, to Queen Marie-Antoinette.

The second meeting that will prove decisive

for Elisabeth’s future success will again take place

during one of her strolls in a park.

[Elisabeth] “We went to Marly-Le-Roi,

and there I realized for the first time

how enchanting a place could be.

One morning I met the Queen walking in the park

with several ladies of her Court.

They were all in white dresses and so young

that they looked like an apparition.

I was with my mother, and was turning away to leave,

when the Queen very kindly stopped me

and invited me to continue in any direction

I might prefer.”

[narrator] Marie-Antoinette had arrived

in France in May 1770, at the age of 15,

to marry Louis Auguste, Dauphin of France

and grandson of Louis XV.

During a firework display held to celebrate the marriage,

Place Louis XV, future Place de la Concorde,

is the scene of a dramatic incident.

133 people are smothered and trampled to death

during a wave of panic caused by a fire

set off by a falling rocket.

An ominous omen,

for it’s on this very same site that, 20 years later,

the royal couple will be executed.

Elisabeth and her family escape the fire unharmed.

Elisabeth’s clientele grows larger day by day.

But she works as a free agent,

outside any official institution.

The Jurande,

a body governing professional incorporations,

seizes her studio

and obliges her to register her activity

within a professional framework.

[Juliette] In 18th Century France,

it’s obligatory to belong to an artists’ guild,

and in Paris,

this was the Academy of Saint Luke.

So if you weren’t a member of the Academy of Saint Luke.

You had to be a member of the Royal Academy

of Painting and Sculpture.

[Geneviève] This is why she applies to become a member

of the Academy of Saint Luke,

where she’ll be enthusiastically accepted.

[narrator] In 1775, Jacques François Le Sèvre

and his family move to an apartment

in a big mansion house in rue de Cléry,

almost directly opposite the former apartment

of Louis Vigée.

Their apartment is in a beautiful mansion house

called the Lubert Mansion

whose live-in owner is Jean-Baptiste Pierre LeBrun.

[narrator] Jean-Baptiste is an ambitious young man

who pursues a triple career

as painter, art restorer and art dealer.

His apartments are filled with works of the old masters,

which Elisabeth will study and copy.

The best learning method for aspiring female painters

who’d already mastered the basics,

was to copy the existing works of art.

It’s always been like that.

[narrator] Jean-Baptiste is also the curator

of several large private art collections

such as that of the Count of Vaudreuil.

Joseph Hyacinthe de Vaudreuil

is a nobleman at the court of Louis XVI.

Peer of France, governor of the Louvre

and member of the Academy of Fine Arts,

he’ll become one of the first

collectors of Elisabeth’s portraits.

At the Lubert mansion,

the young art dealer soon succumbs to the charms

of the talented and beautiful young woman.

[Elisabeth] “I was then twenty years old.

I was living without anxiety as to my future,

since I was earning a good deal of money

and thus felt no inclination for matrimony.

But my mother, who believed Monsieur Lebrun

to be very rich, unceasingly urged me

not to refuse such a profitable match

and I at last consented to the marriage.”

[Geneviève] They both have an artistic sensitivity.

They can discuss painting and they’re both very ambitious.

So it’s this love of painting, this ambition

and a mutual attraction that will form

the bond of their couple,

which will last, finally, for quite a number of years.

[narrator] Jean-Baptiste does business

with the Dutch art dealers

and he takes the young woman with him on one of his trips

to Flanders.

In Antwerp she discovers the masterpieces of Rubens.

It’s during this trip that the great master’s technique

inspires her to do a self-portrait on oak panel.

[Gwenola] The use of oil on wood gives the painting

a glossy, almost enamel effect, which is different to the effect

produced by oil on canvas.

[Katherine] The panels are remarkable

for the transparency of the coloration,

which is surely a rubensean effect,

because it’s very clear that she was very, very much

influenced by Rubens.

[Gwenola] She visits the Antwerp art dealer,

Jean Michel Van Havre, and discovers a portrait

that’s commonly known as ‘The Straw Hat’.

It’s actually a felt hat

which enables an effect of projected shadow,

a play of light and shade,

particularly on the face and forehead.

[peaceful music]

She went back to France and painted her self-portrait,

which was one of the greatest pictures

she ever painted. And the first one on panel.

[Joseph] And she learned, she acquired skill

and painted with blazers, with colored blazers,

and she’s at the top of her form there.

[narrator] The painting is so successful that Elisabeth,

at the request of her clients, reemploys the same accessories.

The silk shawl edged in black lace

and the hat creating a gentle chiaroscuro effect,

can be found in several of her other portraits.

She’ll use them to cover Madame Du Barry,

herself, Marie-Antoinette and many others.

[Juliette] It’s amusing to see that from one portrait

to another, Vigée-Le Brun,

once she’s found a formula that works,

will use this same costume, these same accessories,

on different models.

[narrator] Although united through their shared love

for painting and their ambition,

Elisabeth and Jean-Baptiste live independent lives,

and she’ll describe her husband as a dissipated gambler

who squanders all her money.

[Françoise] She speaks very badly of her husband

in her ‘Memoirs’, but I think her husband

was very useful to her in fact.

Not only by introducing her to great works of art,

but also by his unfailing support of her.

[narrator] Elisabeth nonetheless follows

Jean-Baptiste’s advice and sets up a painting atelier

for young ladies.

The young woman doesn’t have much authority over her students

but transmits to them her love of art and her technique.

Her ‘Young Ladies’ School’, as Madame Lebrun calls it,

will prove to be quite a success.

She had a group of young women around her,

who worked at her side and whom she taught.

And one of the exercises she had them do

was ‘the expressive head’ study.

[narrator] Not able to have live models in her atelier,

Elisabeth gives her students her own drawings

to copy as an exercise.

[Xavier] These are drawings done in black chalk

with white chalk highlights,

and we can see that she works as though she’s using pastels,

that is, she stumps her lines,

probably with her fingertips.

She smudges the black chalk to model the face,

to create this shading that brings out

the depth and volume.

And this is a very difficult exercise

that each of her students has to learn how to do.

[narrator] Shortly after opening her school,

Elisabeth gives birth to her first child,

a little girl that she’ll name Julie,

soon nicknamed ‘Brunette’.

Added to the joy of being a mother

is the satisfaction of becoming a recognized artist

whose fees are amongst the highest of her time.

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun

who knows the art market very well,

and who’s an excellent businessman,

knew what he was doing

when he set extremely high prices

for his wife’s paintings.

[Katherine] An arty was specializes in handling

their artist...

in order to achieve the best result financially.

But I have the impression that Vigée-Lebrun was able to

achieve the result financially on her own.

[Geneviève] She’s personable and talented enough

to be able to establish her own connections.

Little by little, she’s going to succeed

in making a name for herself in the society of her time.

On the one hand through her talent,

and on the other, through her beauty.

She’s a very graceful woman, very bright and cultivated.

[narrator] While heads may turn to look at her in Paris,

it’s Elisabeth’s conversation

that particularly charms her models during sittings.

Another thing about painting portraits is

that you have to be an intelligent person

and a good conversationalist.

People hated sitting for portraits.

Members of the royal family hated it the most

because they had to be painted the most.

They wanted to be entertained when they sat.

[narrator] Ambitious, her desire is to reach

the highest ranks of power

and it’s undoubtedly through the Duchess of Chartres

that she gains access to Queen Marie-Antoinette.

In 1778 she obtains official entrance

to the royal palace of Versailles.

[Joseph] The empress Maria-Theresa,

who was Marie-Antoinette’s mother,

was never satisfied with any portrait of her daughter.

She received some portraits that weren’t so...

that offended her.

So she asked the queen to find a painter.

[soft music]

[Gwenola] Marie-Antoinette is always disappointed

with the portraits done of her.

There’s this famous letter to her mother,

in November 1774, in which she writes,

“The painters kill me and make me despair.”

So it’s in this context of expectancy

on the part of the queen,

that Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

is going to be given her chance at painting her

and it’s this first portrait of the queen called

‘En robe à paniers’; ‘In a hoopskirt’.

[Xavier] When you look at the queen’s face

in this portrait,

it’s still the ‘Habsbourg’ face, that is,

the jutted out chin, the thick bottom lip,

the slightly protruding eyes.

Then progressively,

she uses her talent to soften these physical defects,

to create an image which, ten years later,

is that of this woman of great beauty,

but which no longer exactly reflects reality.

The likenesses are perfect,

and yes, she operated like a plastic surgeon.

[narrator] Elisabeth’s true talent could be said to be

that of adapting herself to the personality of her sitter.

She’s capable of bringing out the grace

of the young noble ladies,

the piquant lightness

of the actress Madame Molé Raymond,

or the sensuality of Madame Grant,

the future Princess of Talleyrand.

There’s a lot of grace in Vigée-Le Brun’s portraits,

and her texture is soft and velvety, in fact.

There’s a lot of sentiment there,

rather than sentimentality.

We feel she has empathy for her model.

[narrator] Because she listens and observes,

she knows how to bring out the natural attributes

of her models.

[Elisabeth] “It is difficult, however,

to convey to anyone who has not seen the Queen

an adequate idea of her noble traits

and many graceful qualities.

But the most remarkable thing about her face

was the splendor of her complexion.

I have never seen one so brilliant,

and ‘brilliant’ is the word,

for her skin was so transparent that it had no shading.

I was unable to reproduce its effect to my satisfaction;

I had no colors to paint such freshness,

such delicate tints, which were hers alone,

and which I have never found in any other woman.”

Marie-Antoinette has found her portraitist.

While not actually being close friends,

a steady relationship of affectionate intimacy

established itself between the two women.

[narrator] Marie-Antoinette shares her passion for the opera

with the portraitist

and the sittings often end with the two of them

performing in a duet

the fashionable tunes of the time.

Elisabeth now wants the ultimate recognition,

that of being accepted by the Royal Academy of Painting.

But she’s refused admission because its regulations

formally forbid any contact with mercantile professions

and she’s the wife of an art dealer.

A woman at that time shared the profession of her husband.

So that was the reason they excluded her.

So she went behind their backs and went to the queen,

and persuaded the Queen to get permission from the King

for her to be able to enter the academy,

because that was the royal way to succeed.

Then you could exhibit

in the official Salon of the Academy.

[narrator] In reality,

the Academy accepts very few women artists.

Only four of them will be admitted in 1783:

Madame Lebrun, Anne Vallayer-Coster,

Marie-Thérèse Reboul and a formidable rival

in the art of portraiture, Adelaide Labille-Guiard.

[Joseph] She, and her great rival,

Madame Labille-Guiard,

used to show their finest work in the Salon,

and each of them tried to beat the other one.

So, in 1783,

Vigiée-Lebrun did her self-portrait

wearing a straw hat,

which is one of the great masterpieces of hers.

The very next Salon,

Madame Labille-Guiard

produced her self-portrait with her students,

so she was trying to show off,

and to put herself on the same level as her rival.

[Françoise] Madame Vigée-Lebrun, who was extremely ambitious,

ardently wanted to attain the higher hierarchy

of painting, which was history painting.

[narrator] Among the history painters,

Jacques Louis David,

member of the Royal Academy, is the uncontested master.

He will achieve fame in 1784

with his famous painting ‘Oath of the Horatii’,

which will eclipse his rivals.

He will be a precious friend and advisor to Elisabeth.

[Joseph] She always wanted to be a history painter,

in the scale of the genres

history painting was at the very top

and portraiture came in a much lower...

had a much lower standing.

In the 18th Century, anatomy is a domain

strictly reserved for men.

The rule for women is not to see a nude body,

not to be in the presence of a nude body.

[Katharine] If you couldn’t draw from a male-nude,

you couldn’t paint history, you couldn’t paint mythology.

Essentially,

you couldn’t rise to the highest plane in the arts.

So you were permanently handicapped.

[narrator] Madame Vigée-Lebrun gets through

thanks to the helping hand of her royal connections,

and impudently flirts with the history painting genre

through the work she presents as her reception piece:

‘Peace bringing back Prosperity’.

[Juliette] We can see in this, her desire to be

a history painter, but using female models,

so remaining within the limits of decency.

[narrator] But while women know may know a certain success

as artists, they are limited

to the minor arts

which are the miniature, the portrait or still-life.

[Daniele] What’s always interesting

with these still-lifes is that these women

are sending a hidden message.

[narrator] Anne Vallayere Coster

is an artist specialized in this static world

that is still-life, one of the compositions of which

hides a very distinctive signature

...of a horrible press-campaign against her.

Because she was--

she belonged to the circle that

who formed the most intimate friendships...

with the court of Louis the XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

She became the official, or rather the non-official

first painter to the Queen.

[narrator] Elisabeth is likened to

the much-criticized queen who’s accused of being clannish,

of spending extravagantly

and of disregarding court etiquette.

[Juliette] Marie-Antoinette breaches court etiquette

by choosing her own dressmakers,

which theoretically she doesn’t have the right to do,

but she overrides this rule,

and this is why she favors Rose Bertin

as well as other dressmakers,

and why she also favors Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.

She’s really the protector of both these women.

[narrator] This female trio represented by

Marie-Antoinette, Rose Bertin and the portraitist

will become the model for Parisian taste.

Elisabeth, for her part,

spends very little on her wardrobe

and invents a simple and practical dress style

that’s suited to her work.

Leaving aside wigs, hoops, and adornments,

she wears white cotton blouses and comfortable skirts

that she embellishes with a colored belt.

Soon, ladies of the court and Parisian women

will want to emulate her style of dress.

[Juliette] She explains that she wants to change

the fashion codes

and move more towards simplicity.

She relates that she’s the first one

not to use powder on her models,

to have natural-looking hair in her portraits.

All this takes place in a historical context,

the 1780s,

influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

and his ‘natural man’ philosophy.

[narrator] Madame Le Brun, always on the lookout

for new clients,

knows that the salon of the Royal Academy,

a veritable contemporary art fair,

is the place to be seen at.

She exhibits her portraits there at each session.

[Danièle] The art salon is indispensable,

you have to show yourself.

And this is something that Vigée-Le Brun excels at,

because not only is she a woman artist,

she’s also a businesswoman, a strategist,

who pursues her career in a very independent way

and who understood marketing ahead of her time.

[narrator] Elisabeth and Marie-Antoinette

mutually enhance each other:

the artist simplifies the look of her royal model

and beautifies it.

But this simplification has its limits

and for the salon of 1783,

she will propose a quite unexpected

picture of the queen.

We know the story of the famous ‘Muslin Dress’

portrait in which Marie-Antoinette wears

a simple English-style dress,

where the queen progressively agrees to discard

her heavy stiff gowns

and be represented in a much simpler manner.

[Juliette] This muslin dress,

which is a simple cotton muslin dress,

places the spotlight on a material 'cotton'

that’s normally used for underwear,

or for a house dress, at the most.

So it’s particularly audacious on the part of Vigée-Lebrun

to present a portrait of Marie-Antoinette

dressed in a muslin dress in 1783

because this is the first salon where she’s exhibiting,

and she’s taking an enormous risk.

A risk she doesn’t entirely assume however,

because a few days later,

because of the scandal it provoked,

she withdraws the painting and replaces it

with an identical portrait

but with the queen wearing a much more conventional dress.

[narrator] Despite the scandal

provoked by the portrait, Marie-Antoinette’s faith

in her portraitist remains unshaken.

She’ll commission other portraits from her

and soon one of her children too.

[Gwenola] We have to place ourselves in the context.

A few years after their marriage,

the royal couple’s infertility becomes an affair of state.

So much so that the arrival of ‘Madame Royale’,

Marie-Theresa Charlotte,

is a cause for national celebration,

and then the birth of the Dauphin,

Louis Joseph Xavier François,

sends the country into raptures of joy

since there’s now a male heir to the throne,

ensuring dynastic continuity.

Madame Lebrun is going to place them

in a pastoral setting,

with the royal children sitting on the ground.

This is not at all in keeping with court etiquette,

and yet their costume still reminds us

of the rank of Marie-Antoinette’s children

since the heir apparent wears the insignia

and the celestial blue ribbon of the Order of the Holy Spirit,

which all children of the sovereign receive

on the day of their baptism.

Madame Vigée Le Brun will find the model

for this painting in a work by one of her elders,

François Hubert Drouais,

called ‘Count d’Artois and Madame Clotilde’,

they are the brother and sister of Louis XVI.

[narrator] Pregnant again,

Elisabeth loses her second child,

aged only a few months.

She transfers all her affection to Julie.

In the tradition of the virgins of Raphael whom she admires,

she paints herself with her arms around her daughter,

an expression of ‘maternal tenderness’

on her face.

In 1787 she paints herself with her daughter

in a self-portrait that the critics are immediately

going to name ‘Maternal Tenderness’,

this gentle affection of the soul.

And this portrait will be unanimously applauded

at the salon.

It’s true, it does give off a particularly harmonious image

of the mother-child relationship,

and it’s this sort of ideal, symbiotic image

that the artist will try to preserve

and which will be destroyed by the reality

of her true relationship with her daughter.

[narrator] King Louis XVI and especially Marie-Antoinette,

are the target of increasingly aggressive

criticisms and satirical cartoons.

Discontent is brewing,

what should have remained just an anecdote,

in 1785 becomes a scandal.

The jewelers, Boehmer and Bassange

had in their safe since 1772

a fabulous 2,800 carat diamond necklace

intended for Madame Du Barry.

Louis XV dies before the necklace is delivered.

The jewelers offered it on two separate occasions

to Marie-Antoinette who refuses it.

The Countess de la Motte,

concocts an extraordinary plan to steal the necklace,

compromising the queen.

When the affair comes to light the countess is arrested

and branded with ‘V' for ‘voleur’ meaning ‘thief’.

The necklace was never found.

The pamphleteers picked up the story

of ‘the affair of the necklace’ and refused to believe

in Marie-Antoinette’s innocence.

The scandal destroys what’s left of the queen’s reputation

in the eyes of the public

who now accuse her of all kinds of wrongs.

This is why the superintendent of the King’s Buildings,

d’Angevilliers, is going to commission from the artist

a portrait of the queen as a mother with her children.

It’s at a time when the queen is extremely unpopular,

she’s referred to as ‘the Austrian’.

There’s this famous necklace affair,

so it’s really in the aim

of rehabilitating Marie-Antoinette,

to have people forget the frivolous young woman

she may have been and rehabilitate her

through exalting her in her role as mother.

So it’s a highly political commission.

It’s a group portrait, a composition that the artist

isn’t particularly used to doing,

and it’s also a very large format portrait,

so she’s going to ask David for advice.

He suggests a triangular composition

in order to ‘sanctify’ the painting

and bring to mind the compositions

of the Renaissance,

and in particular Raphael’s holy families.

[narrator] Exhibited in the salon of 1787

between the portrait of Julie and her mother

and a portrait of Madame Adelaide

by Labille-Guiard,

the painting could almost allude to an episode of Roman History,

that of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi.

A friend who’d come to visit Cornelia

and show off her jewelry asks to see Cornelia’s in turn.

Cornelia replies by gesturing to her children:

‘These are my treasures and my finest jewels’.

[Juliette] That’s why we see in this highly composed

painting, Queen Marie-Antoinette

with her children,

and behind them, the queen’s jewel case.

The jewel case is relegated to the background

and it’s her children that are placed

in the foreground.

[Gwenola] Placed on the jewel case

is the royal crown resting on a cushion

decorated with Fleur-de-lys to remind us

of the majestic dignity of the characters.

We’re still in a royal context.

Now this jewel case, even if it is in the shadows,

can’t help bringing to mind the recent affair

of the necklace,

so it’s perhaps because of this that the painting

fails in its purpose.

Everyone sees the portrait; it’s heavily criticized,

especially for the expression on the queen’s face,

which is deemed to be too sad.

[Geneviève] It’s far too late

for Marie-Antoinette’s reputation to be restored.

[narrator] These scandals don’t make a dent

in Madame Lebrun’s artistic and social successes.

Her “little antechamber” has become a very popular salon

in Paris where celebrities can be counted

amongst the painters, poets and fashionable musicians.

[Jérôme] Anyone who was anyone in Paris, in music,

came to her salon.

So who were these people?

Well there was Gluck.

Gluck is a star in France.

Since his arrival at the Paris Opera House,

he received lots of commissions,

he wrote six great operas for Paris.

Grétry came to her salon, she sang with him,

and Grétry was also a European celebrity.

[Katharine] Everyone came to her.

She put on very, very fine entertainments at home.

[soft music]

[narrator] In a constant spirit of creativity,

Elisabeth lends support to a movement

that will be very popular up until the beginning

of the 19th Century: the return to the ‘Antique’ style.

[Elisabeth]“I will now give you,

my dear friend,

the exact account of the most brilliant supper

I ever gave in the days when people were always talking

about my luxurious and magnificent mode of life.”

While she rests, her brother would read her poems

or books.

And that day he reads her an excerpt from a novel

by the Abbot Barthélemy

describing an Antique-style dinner.

[Elisabeth] “One evening, when I had invited a dozen

or more friends to hear a recital by the poet Lebrun,

my brother read aloud to me,

a few pages of the ‘Travels of Anacharsis’

during my rest.

When he came to the passage where,

in the description of a Greek dinner,

the method of preparing various sauces is explained,

he said "We ought to try this tonight".

I sent immediately for my cook

and gave her the necessary instructions

for the preparation of a certain sauce for the fowl

and of another for the eel.”

“My atelier, full of things I used for draping my models,

would furnish me with enough material for garments.

I placed behind the chairs a large screen,

which I took the precaution of concealing

beneath some hangings looped up at intervals,

as may be seen in Poussin's pictures.

As I was expecting some very beautiful women,

I thought it a good idea to dress everybody

in Greek costumes,

in order to have a surprise ready for Mr de Vaudreuil

who was not expected till ten o'clock.

As I always wore white gowns in the form of a tunic,

I needed only to put a chaplet of flowers on my head.

The preparations were finished.

I took particular pains in costuming my daughter,

darling child that she was.”

[Geneviève] The guests start to arrive.

Madame de Bonneuil, Madame Chalgrin.

She dresses them up in drapings from her studio,

wraps scarves and shawls around their waists.

[Elisabeth] “And there they were,

all three metamorphosed into perfect Athenians.

Lebrun-Pindare comes in;

and I fix on his head a crown of laurels.

At ten o'clock we heard the carriage

of Count de Vaudreuil enter the courtyard.

He was so surprised and delighted

that he stood motionless for a long time

before making up his mind to take the seat

we had reserved for him.

I do not believe I have ever spent a more amusing evening.

Monsieur de Vaudreuil was so delighted

with the evening that he talked about it to all

his acquaintances the next day.

Some ladies of the Court begged me to repeat

the performance.

I declined for various reasons,

whereat several of the ladies took offence.”

[narrator] If the name of Count Vaudreuil

is so often mentioned in Madame Le Brun’s ‘Memoirs’

it’s because their relationship may have been less platonic

than she describes it.

She probably had a liaison with Count Vaudreuil,

in any case her gardener notes in his diary

that Madame Le Brun was Vaudreuil’s mistress.

Madame Le Brun possessed amongst her objects,

a snuffbox which had a lock of Vaudreuil’s hair

inlayed in its lid.

There exists a regular correspondence between them.

This correspondence was burnt during the Reign of Terror

by Etienne Vigée, for safety’s sake,

but the fact that this correspondence existed

gives us a clue.

[narrator] Since the end of the 1780s,

bad harvests and ever heavier taxes

weaken and discontent the population.

Revolts break out.

To find a solution to the financial crisis,

the king convokes a meeting of the Estates-General.

On June 20th 1789 in the Jeu de Paume room

at Versailles, the deputies of the Third Estate,

the Clergy and the Nobility take an oath not to adjourn

before adopting a Constitution for France.

On June 30th, the people of Paris

storm the prison of the Abbey of Saint-Germain des Près

and free the French Guards imprisoned there

for insubordination.

On the morning of July 14th, the Parisian rioters

go looking for arms.

They pillage the arsenal of the Hôtel des Invalides

and the Royal Treasury where they find guns and cannons

but no powder.

They’ll find some at the Bastille

together with other partisans of the revolution

amassed in front of the fortress prison in Faubourg Saint-Antoine

since that morning.

The storming and destruction of the Bastille,

symbol of arbitrary power, begins.

An atmosphere of insecurity spreads through Paris

and Louise Elisabeth feels herself in danger.

Inscriptions are scrawled on the newly renovated walls

of the Lebrun mansion.

she can no longer show herself at the window.

[narrator] A new municipal administration

is going to be set up.

Louis XVI goes to Paris on July 17th

and agrees to wear pinned to his hat the tricolor cockade

a combination of blue and red, the colors of Paris,

with the royal white.

During the night of August 4th 1789,

the assembly abolishes aristocratic privilege.

The society of the Old Order is living its final moments.

Louise Elisabeth, who doesn’t want to stay

at the Lebrun house,

goes to Louveciennes where she’s promised

Madame Du Barry,

the former favorite of Louis XV,

to paint her portrait.

She finds a moment of peace in this setting

where she admires the view of the Seine hillsides.

[narrator] At Louveciennes time seems to have stood still.

But the peace is deceptive.

Paris is under siege

and violent rioting rages day and night in the suburbs.

[Elisabeth] “From Louveciennes we could hear cannon fire

in the distance,

and I remember the poor woman saying,

“If Louis XV were alive,

none of this would be happening.”

[narrator] Elisabeth knows that she has to leave France.

It’s effectively the moment for her to go into exile.

She waited, however, until October before leaving.

Unlike Count d’Artois, who left on July the 14th.

[narrator] On October 5th 1789,

a crowd, mainly women, makes its way towards Versailles.

The king receives a delegation.

But at break of day on October 6th,

the horde storms the palace, killing several guards.

To calm the situation, Louis XVI agrees

to go with his family to the Tuileries palace.

They’re escorted through an angry, vociferous crowd.

The heads of guards are brandished on pikes.

For Elisabeth, flight is now inevitable.

By a strange coincidence, she’ll take the stagecoach

the day after the royal family is led from Versailles

to the Town Hall, then to the Tuileries.

[narrator] That night, disguised as working women,

Elisabeth, Brunette and her governess

climb into the stagecoach.

[soft music]

Her brother Etienne, Jean-Baptiste Lebrun

and their friend Hubert Robert, ride at the side of the coach

up to the Saint Antoine barrier.

The first stage of the journey will take Elisabeth to Lyon.

She doesn’t know it yet but this journey will last

thirteen years.

Thirteen years of exile throughout Europe.

[morose instrumental music]

[narrator] Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

left Paris with very little luggage

and just enough money to pay her fare to Rome,

hoping she would not be recognized

and could pass the border without mishap.

[Elisabeth] Opposite me in the stagecoach

was a man who told me quite simply

that he had stolen watches and other things.

Not satisfied with relating his fine exploits to us,

the thief talked incessantly of stringing up

such and such people on lamp-posts,

naming a number of my own acquaintances.

My daughter thought this man very wicked.

He frightened her,

and this gave me the courage to say,

"I beg you, sir, not to talk of killing

before this child."

That silenced him,

and he ended by playing battle with my daughter.

[narrator] After a stop in Lyon,

the traveler then reached Chambéry in the state of Savoy.

Once outside of France, she finally felt safe.

But she was recognized by a postilion

while she crossed the Mont Cenis Pass,

simply because he had seen an engraving

of her self-portrait with her daughter.

Madame Lebrun's celebrity had been fueled

by the spread throughout Europe of engravings

of her most famous portraits.

Reassured for a while,

she continued on her way to Rome.

The young woman decided to leave on what would appear

like a study trip to Italy.

The Grand Tour in Italy was a rite of passage

for painters.

So off she went, leaving her husband

but taking her daughter.

[narrator] In the late eighteenth century,

travel was fashionable.

Exiles, traders and artists in search of patrons

criss-crossed Europe in stagecoaches, cabs

and carriages.

New roads and repairs to old roads

were shortening travel time.

In 1750, it took twelve days to cross France,

whereas fifteen years later, eight sufficed.

In 1780, the public coaches were still twice as fast

on the royal roads,

while the invention of spring suspension

eased the travelers' tiredness.

Fresh horses awaited riders and carriages at post houses,

in order to accelerate mail delivery.

Here, inns would cater to travelers' appetites

and sometimes provide basic accommodation.

Since the seventeenth century, Rome had been the homeland

of all European artists.

The circulation of the paintings of Italian artists

and the creation of large collections

ensured that the whole of Europe was familiar

with the works of the masters.

The "Grand Tour", as it was called,

was a study trip, not just for artists,

but also for young gentlemen

keen to round out their education.

Italian landscapes were in fashion at the time.

In France, Joseph Vernet romanticized Naples and Rome

whereas Hubert Robert specialized in depicting

ancient Roman ruins.

[Geneviève] The artist did break her journey;

first in Turin, then in Parma.

Finally she traveled to Bologna where she stayed for some time.

[narrator] In this town, the first thing the young woman

wanted to see was a picture she had heard of by Domenichino:

the Martyrdom of Saint Agnes.

Soon after her arrival, she was gazing

at the painting at length, moved by the youth

and innocence of the young martyr.

Suddenly the organ struck up the overture

to Iphigénie en Tauride,

one of Marie Antoinette's favorite arias.

Saint Ephigenia and the queen merged into one tragic image.

The traveler burst into tears.

A flood of memories of happy, light-hearted times

that seemed forever lost,

and for the first time she deeply felt the solitude

of exile.

From Bologna she journeyed to Florence,

where she decided to linger.

In the Uffizi Gallery, enriched by the Medicis,

she explored the masterpiece of Michelangelo,

Titian, Raphael, and in the Palazzo Pitti,

those of Rubens and Rembrandt.

For a time, the wealth of wonders

made her forget Paris and the revolution,

and she set off once more for Rome,

spiritual home of all artists.

[Elisabeth] "You know, dear friend,

that just a short distance from Rome

Saint Peter's dome is visible?

I cannot tell you the joy I felt upon seeing it.

I thought I was dreaming of what I had so long desired in vain.

[soft music]

Only the satisfaction of living in Rome

could soothe my sorrow at leaving my land,

my family, and so many beloved friends."

[narrator] Upon arrival, the portraitist was taken in

by her friend, the painter Ménageot,

director of the French Academy.

He lent her a little money.

[Geneviève] Ménageot admired her greatly,

and she loved to hear him talk about painting.

It's possible that a platonic relationship

developed between them.

[narrator] Founded in 1666 by Colbert

and later installed in the Palazzo Mancini,

the Academy welcomed "pensionnaires"

chosen by the Académie Royale.

Her fame had crossed borders and orders from exiled emigrants

and Italian nobles came flooding in.

She was even invited by the Vatican

to execute a portrait of Pope Pius VI.

Elisabeth refused the commission

as custom would have insisted on her being veiled

for the sittings,

which she saw as incompatible with the quality of her work.

[Françoise] When she arrived in Rome,

she came across an already established

female painter

even more successful than herself: Angelica Kauffman.

[narrator] Like Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun,

Angelica Kauffman was a precocious artist.

Born in Switzerland, also into a family of painters,

she traveled throughout Europe at a young age,

acquiring a cosmopolitan clientele.

In London, she was one of the founders

of the Royal Academy,

and her portraits were sought after among the gentry.

Angelica Kauffmann has a rather different background.

She started out an international artist.

She had a father who was a journeyman painter.

She once was in fact a history painter

a good part of her life,

and that’s one of the great differences

between the two of them

and she was traveling all over Switzerland and north Italy

when she was very young.

I dare say that she was a more international artist

than even Vigée-Lebrun.

[Françoise] In her memoirs, Madame Vigée Le Brun

speaks of Angelica Kauffman,

saying she was very intelligent

and that what she did was pretty.

You could sense she didn't want to say

she was a good painter.

She just said she was very cultured but rather boring.

[narrator] Despite the unfavorable review,

Elisabeth was flattered to appear at the theater

or the opera alongside the most famous

of her colleagues.

[Geneviève] She was thrilled that all the spectators

finally acclaimed them as the two most famous

female artists in Europe.

[narrator] Though the male-written history books

may have forgotten their names

great museums and international collectors

have fought over the masterpieces

of Rosalba Carriera, Angelica Kauffmann,

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun.

Female painters were prisoners of their category,

but some, such as Marie Guillemine Benoist,

did break free.

Despite the critics Elisabeth's former pupil,

launched herself into genre painting

like this portrait of a Black woman,

which would become a symbol of the emancipation of slaves

and of feminism.

[Daniele] You get the impression there were very few

women painters or artists

and that the men far outnumbered them.

But you gradually realize

that there really were quite a few

but they were kept in the shade

and forced into the background in regard to the men.

[narrator] Noting that lots of foreigners

were leaving to spend the summer in Naples,

Elisabeth decided to go there

after spending several months in Rome.

[Elisabeth] "We reached Naples at about three or four o'clock.

I cannot describe the impression I received

upon entering the town.

That burning sun, that stretch of sea,

those islands seen in the distance,

that Vesuvius with a great column of smoke

ascending from it.

I was enchanted by all of it."

[Geneviève] In Naples, one of the first people

she got to know was Lord Hamilton,

in whose entourage was the famous Lady Hamilton,

or rather the soon-to-be Lady Hamilton,

whom the artist painted many times.

Owing to her extraordinary physique,

she was already sitting for Reynolds,

and her likenesses were well-known throughout Europe.

[narrator] Emma Hart, the future Lady Hamilton,

began her career in a London tavern.

Thanks to her astonishing beauty,

she found, with several English gentlemen,

the protection she required.

Despite her scandalous reputation,

Emma managed in 1791 to wed Lord Hamilton,

British ambassador to Naples.

The portrait of her as Sybil would be used

by Elisabeth as a reference work to acquire new clients.

[Geneviève] This portrait would be very important

in her career.

She carried it with her

and at each stage of her European tour would

unroll it,

pin it in a frame and thus advertise her talent.

In Naples, she was soon introduced to the royal family,

more particularly to Marie Caroline,

who was Marie Antoinette's elder sister.

[narrator] Elisabeth was very moved

by the striking resemblance between the two sisters

and painted a portrait of Marie Caroline

in virtually the same pose as Marie Antoinette.

Of this fine portrait, only copies remain.

One morning in the summer of 1790,

French ambassador Baron de Talleyrand

brought her a commission from the Queen of Naples:

that of the portrait of her two daughters,

whom she sought to marry.

[Elisabeth] "The hour of noon was appointed for the sittings,

and to attend I was obliged to follow the Chiaja road

in the heat of the day.

The sun's reflection was so vivid

that I was almost struck blind.

To save my eyes, I put on a green veil,

which I had never seen anyone else do,

and which must have looked rather peculiar,

since only black or white veils were worn.

But a few days after I saw several English women

imitating me,

and green veils came into fashion."

[narrator] The fashion was launched and, with a hint of vanity,

she boasted of inventing a style that other women adopted.

Though a pioneer of fashion abroad, she did not want to be forgotten in France.

So, using Ménageot as go-between,

she sent off a portrait to the Salon du Louvre.

[Francoise] For the 1791 Salon, she sent, rolled in a painting by Ménageot,

her portrait of Paisiello, the musician.

A magnificent portrait

which was exhibited with the paintings of David, etc.

[Gwenola] She painted him in 1790, in a moment of inspiration.

His eyes were raised heavenward.

He was composing on the harpsichord

and seemed to be seeking divine inspiration.

It's a recurrent image in Madame Vigée Le Brun's body of work.

She also painted Angélica Catalani, a soprano,

one of Paisiello's artists,

also in this attitude of divine inspiration.

[narrator] While Elisabeth was persona non gratain France,

her rival, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard,

who rallied to the revolutionary cause,

portrayed Robespierre and his friends,

thus attempting to ensure the support of the new strongmen in Paris.

Back in Rome, Madame Vigée Le Brun returned to her friend François Ménageot

and set to work once more.

Two daughters of Louis XV, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire

both in exile, called her and, during a sitting, informed her of some tragic news.

In the night of June 21 1791,

the royal family left the Tuileries Palace in secret

and took a coach bound for Lorraine,

towards the French troops that had remained loyal to the king.

Traveling with fake passports, the runaways were nonetheless recognized in Varennes

and taken back to Paris by the National Guard.

The royal escape was viewed as a betrayal of the Constitution.

The idea of a Republic was gaining ground

and supporters of the abolition of the Monarchy used this event

to accuse Louis XVI of rallying to France's enemies.

[Geneviève] The artist had planned to return to France

after a three-year stay in Italy.

[narrator] On the way, she lingered in Tuscany,

where her love of nature was matched by the richness of the landscapes.

She made a visit to Venice,

where she was charmed by its architecture on wooden piles

and by the many parties she attended with a writer and engraver friend,

also a refugee, Dominique Vivant Denon,

who had fun making an engraving of her self-portrait.

[soft music]

Keen to return to France, Elisabeth headed for Turin.

But the city was filled with émigrés

fleeing the bloody massacres in Paris

from September 2 to 7, 1792.

[Elisabeth]"On entering the town, great heavens!

Streets, squares, were all filled with thousands of people of all ages,

who had fled from French towns and come to Turin in search of a home.

The sight broke my heart.

Trembling, I dared only ask for news of my mother, my brother,

Mr. Lebrun and all my friends, and abandoned the plan of going to Paris."

[narrator] The young woman realized that she could not return to France.

Shattered, she turned back towards Milan.

She was advised by Count Wilczeck, Austrian ambassador to Milan,

and decided to win over a new clientele in Vienna.

Elisabeth entered the Holy Roman capital in summer 1792,

and there she stayed for three years.

[Geneviève] Her time was split between concerts, melancholy strolls in Schönbrunn

and, of course, the production of paintings for all the Poles and the diplomats in Vienna.

[Elisabeth] "I worked a great deal in Vienna.

It would be difficult to express

all the gratitude I felt for the reception I was afforded in this town.

Not only did the Viennese express their affection for me personally,

they thought it stylish to place my paintings in a way that set them off best."

[narrator]Elisabeth was a perfect colorist

who had learned to grind pigments into powder

by binding them with various raw or cooked oils.

She claimed that these preparations

were the secret of her colors' freshness.

But the quick-drying paint had to be used immediately.

Not until 1841 did the revolutionary tin-foil tube of paint

allow painters to carry their already-prepared colors.

Viewed as an immigrant, Madame Vigée-Lebrun lost her citizen's rights.

In 1793, her husband published a long plea that his wife be permitted to return to Paris.

A petition signed by 255 artists was handed to the authorities.

To no avail.

Lebrun was arrested and incarcerated for several months,

as was Elisabeth's brother, Etienne.

Lebrun, to protect himself and to preserve their assets,

filed for divorce, which was granted in 1794.

In Vienna, she was glad to find the Comte de Vaudreuil,

whose closeness to the Court had forced him into exile in 1789.

But the pleasure of their meeting

was soon overshadowed by echoes of the Terror.

In early 1793, devastating news spread across Europe.

[Elisabeth] "I thus heard of the horrible occurrence through my brother,

who wrote it down and sent the letter

without giving any further particulars whatever.

His heart broken,

he simply wrote that Louis the XVI and Marie Antoinette

had perished on the scaffold.

Afterward, from compassion toward myself,

I always abstained from putting the least question

concerning what accompanied or preceded that awful murder.

King,

queen, friend...

I lost all of them."

[narrator] Elisabeth listened to the Russian ambassador's suggestion that there was

a new wealthy clientele to be found.

Despite the distance and the risks of such a journey,

she decided to try her hand in St. Petersburg.

She left Vienna with a few letters of recommendation

and a passport,

and a stage-by-stage itinerary.

[narrator] Berlin, Dresden, Postdam, Rheinsberg

where she stayed with Prince Henry of Prussia, brother to the king,

Konigsberg, Riga and finally St Petersburg.

Three thousand kilometers of exhausting, sometimes dangerous roads.

[classical piano music]

[piano music continues]

[narrator]Elisabeth and Brunette

moved into an apartment located on the main Winter Palace Square.

From her windows she could gaze upon the splendor of the imperial residence

and the nobility of the angles described by the avenues that opened up before her.

[violin and piano music]

She arrived in summer '95, the end of Catherine the Great's reign.

[Alexandre] It was a time when all French immigrants looked upon Russia

as the new land of Renaissance.

Back then, revolution was a constant.

All the kings were engaged in wars,

and the two countries where peace reigned were Russia

and the United States of America, the New World.

[classical music]

[narrator]Sophie Friederike Auguste, the future Catherine the Great,

was the daughter of German Prince Christian August von Anhalt-Zerbst.

At fifteen she married the future Peter III of Russia.

Immature and unstable,

Peter was overthrown six months into his reign by a coup d'état

organized by his wife,

and was strangled several days later,

no doubt by her lover, Count Grigori Orlov.

French-speaking and extremely cultured,

Catherine became sovereign empress and reigned for more than thirty years.

Two days after her arrival in St. Petersburg,

Madame Vigée was officially summoned to an audience with the Czarina.

Perhaps too sure of her standing as an international artist,

and wearing a simple white tunic unsuited to the situation,

she forgot the ceremonial kissing of the hand

and simply bowed, without kneeling to the Empress.

This hiccough in protocol was considered offensive by the Imperial courtiers,

who became hostile to the portraitist.

Despite that, her celebrity as Marie Antoinette's painter

kindled the interest and curiosity of the St. Petersburg nobility.

[Geneviève] Madame Le Brun was particularly touched

by the welcome bestowed on her by the Russian nobility.

Princess Dolgorukaya invited her for a week to her dacha,

where she made the acquaintance of someone who was to be very important to her,

Princess Kourakina,

who would later be the dedicatee of her memoirs and an extremely loyal friend.

[narrator] All the young ladies of the Russian nobility spoke French,

and they warmly welcomed this ambassador of fashion, taste, and French customs.

In the eighteenth century, all Russians had to make a pilgrimage to Paris,

not for studies, obviously.

In Paris they would learn how to dress, to speak,

even how to cough,

blow one's nose and wear a hat properly.

In short, to become a perfect Parisian.

[narrator] Though her famous Greek supper made headlines in France in 1789,

her reputation for high living crossed borders.

In St. Petersburg, they still talk of a party costing 40,000 pounds,

the equivalent of 400,000 euros

whereas Elisabeth speaks only of 15 pounds.

She dressed her models in the Greek style, significant in Russia,

and that she herself claimed to have made fashionable.

The artist was able to create for herself a certain dress style,

expressed in such a way that her charm

and the attraction she exerted over her circle

encouraged the desire to imitate her.

[piano playing softly]

[narrator]The mid-eighteenth century witnessed an explosion

of Grecomania.

With the spread of engravings that reproduced frescoes

found in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Even the revolutionary celebrations were inspired by antiquity.

Previously the child

wasn't really thought of as a person.

They weren't even sure whether it had a soul.

This idea of a child as a person in their own right

gradually led to more and more family portraits.

[narrator]The Empress, who loved her two granddaughters,

the archduchesses Elena and Alexandra,

placed an order for their portrait.

Elisabeth painted them as rather languid,

in an atmosphere of innocence, with bare arms.

Catherine took great offense of that.

And she complained about it, and Vigée Le Brun

had to scrape it off the canvas

and start all over again.

It just would not do.

Even the portrait of these little girls

had to embody the power of the nation.

As she herself embodied the strength of the world's greatest empire.

[narrator] It was during this same period

that she met Stanislas Poniatowski, deposed King of Poland,

then under house arrest in St. Petersburg.

Sent by his uncle to Russia,

Stanislas benefited from the protection of Catherine the Great,

who became besotted with the young man

and had him restored to the Polish throne.

He was the last king of an independent Poland.

She told an anecdote.

One day, when she was painting, he came to her workshop

and she called out: "I am not at home!"

The king left.

She then realized how bold she had been

and, in turn, went to see him to proffer her excuses.

He told her he quite understood how a very busy artist shouldn't be disturbed,

and wasn't at all angry.

And there we have an insight into the character of this man she particularly liked.

She painted a very flattering portrait of him in words.

"Stanislas was tall, gentle, kind, etc."

You can tell that theirs was a beautiful friendship.

[narrator]Despite her mother's wishes to the contrary,

Brunette was determined to marry a young, impecunious secretary from St. Petersburg

of Italian origin, Gaetano Nigris.

The rows became increasingly violent.

Madame Le Brun gave in to her daughter

and obtained her husband's consent to Julie's marriage.

[Elisabeth]"Owing to the distance,

her father's answer was long delayed,

and someone convinced her that I had only written to Mr. Lebrun

to prevent him from assenting to what she called her felicity.

She said to me one day,

'I post your letters, but I am sure you write others to the contrary.'

[indistinct chatter]

I was stunned and heartbroken,

when at that very moment the postman arrived with a letter

from Mr. Lebrun, giving his consent."

[indistinct chatter]

"But the cruel child showed not the least gratitude at what I had done for her

in immolating all my wishes, hopes and dislikes.

The wedding was nevertheless enacted a few days later."

[narrator] After almost seven years in Russia,

Madame Vigée, tempted to settle in St. Petersburg for good, bitterly faced the facts.

Towards the end of her stay, orders were fewer than at the beginning,

because in fact there weren't ever that many prospective clients.

[slow classical music]

[narrator] The break-up with Julie was complete.

Mother and daughter no longer spoke to one another.

She held no official position,

her clientele was becoming scarcer

and she had to go to Moscow to consolidate her fortune.

Her health deteriorated and she became prone to fits of melancholy.

[sad classical music]

In June 1800, she learned that she had been removed from the list of émigrés,

meaning that nothing stood in the way of a return to France.

Despite regrets, as she thought of Russia as her second home,

she made up her mind to return to Paris.

She returned to France alone,

and was amazed how much the smiling, pleasant landscapes of her outward journey

now seemed dull, sad and melancholy.

"A landscape is a state of the soul," she would say, so for her it was a sad return.

[narrator] After a long and arduous trip,

Elisabeth entered the capital with a heavy heart on January 18 1802.

Jean Baptiste was waiting for her on the steps of the Hôtel Lubert.

Despite their divorce, the emotion was palpable.

That night he made a laconic entry in his notebook.

"Arrival in Paris of Madame Vigée.

Her absence, from her departure on October 6 to January 18 1802,

lasted 12 years, three months and twelve days."

[Geneviève] She realized that the world had changed.

She could not get used to Parisian life, to French life.

Customs had changed; it was no longer the society she had known.

[narrator]After the coup d'étatof November 9 1799,

which overthrew the French Directory,

the Constitution of the Year VIII

established an authoritarian political regime

headed by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte,

a brilliant general swept to prominence

by the success of his campaigns in Italy and Egypt.

Five years later, in 1804, Bonaparte declared himself emperor of the French people

and became Napoleon I.

A new nobility was established in the mansions of Paris.

But Madame Le Brun, devoted to the Bourbons and the Ancien Régime,

couldn't get used to their ways

and displayed a hostility that soon displeased the new emperor.

[Joseph] She stays in Paris just a short time...

and she fulfills several commissions

she had received while she was in Russia,

and she made pastels studies

of certain people that she produced oil portraits of,

and then sent them back to Russia and to Germany.

[narrator]In late 1802, Madame Vigée announced her intention

to take a two-year trip to England,

in the hope of finding a new clientele.

[Joseph] She picked up her brushes

and her paint box and traveled to London.

[narrator] At the time, England boasted some eight hundred portraitists,

competition was fierce

and the artist's extremely expensive fees tended to work against her.

Very soon, Madame Vigée Lebrun stepped back from English society,

which she found profoundly dull and monotonous and said,

"I am not surprised English adopted the word ‘spleen’.

Your mirth equates to our boredom."

[narrator] A cabal headed by the painter Hopner

did not help her status as a foreigner in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

[Joseph]Hopner never got anywhere near the prices that she got.

So he was very, very upset,

and he was something of a poet, so he wrote a poem,

and he really gives her...

like we say here, he gives her what for.

[narrator] As the Emperor wished to portray the members of his dynasty,

Madame Vigée, in Paris once more, received an official commission

for the portrait of his sister Caroline, Princess Murat.

The artist, unable to refuse, grudgingly did her duty.

The thoughtless Caroline's repeated lateness for her sittings

exasperated the portraitist, who observed,

"I have painted real princesses who never worried me, and never made me wait."

In the summer of 1807, Paris was invaded by a stifling heat.

Madame Vigée bowed to the Alpine fashion

and organized a trip to Switzerland.

[Geneviève]Twice, in 1807 and 1808,

she travels a different circuit through Switzerland.

[narrator] On this occasion she stayed with Madame de Staël.

Germaine de Staël was living in semi-exile in the Château de Coppet.

The literary and philosophical salon she held in Paris

had aroused the suspicions of the emperor,

who forbade her from re-entering France.

Elisabeth and Madame de Staël shared a love of the arts

and a hostility towards Napoleon.

The author of Corinne ou l'Italie and the portraitist

were two illustrious women, defenders of the Ancien Régime and totally independent.

On April 3 1814, the Senate proclaimed the deposition of Napoleon.

Charles, Count of Artois and brother of Louis XVI,

preceded his brother the future Louis XVIII

and made a triumphant entrance into Paris on April 12.

Loyal royalist Madame le Brun left her house in Louveciennes and hastened to the capital,

where she cried tears of joy for the restoration of the Bourbons.

[violin playing softly]

[narrator] But her happiness was short-lived, shattered by news of her daughter,

Brunette, who had separated from her husband

and was living in a modest boarding house in Paris.

She was slowly sinking into poverty.

The links between mother and daughter had weakened.

Destroyed by drink and occasional prostitution, Julie had contracted syphilis.

Informed of her plight, Madame Lebrun hurried to her bedside.

[Elisabeth] "I hastened to her as soon as I heard of her illness,

but the disease progressed rapidly, and...

I cannot tell what I felt when all hope of saving her was gone."

[dramatic classical music]

"When, going to see her the last day,

my eyes fell upon that dreadfully sunken face,

I fainted away."

[dramatic music continues]

[speaks in French]

[Elisabeth]"The next day I was childless!

I saw her again, I still see her, in the days of her childhood.

Alas! She was so young! Why did she not survive me?"

[narrator] Madame Lebrun didn't understand what mistakes she had made with Julie.

Didn't she try to pass on her passion for painting?

Closeness turned to incomprehension, and then into violent disputes.

The independent young woman couldn't find her place alongside her too-talented,

too-famous mother.

Madame Lebrun looked to her nieces for comfort,

and passed on to them her precious advice on portrait painting.

[Xavier] It is interesting to note just how much,

when you look at this work and read the advice she gives to Eugénie Tripier Lefranc,

her counsel mirrors her execution.

She says, "The shadows must be both strong and transparent, not thickened,

and in a mature tone, accompanied by firm, lively touches in the cavities,

such as the eye-socket, the recess of the nostrils,

and the shadowy internal parts of the ear."

And it's true that when you approach and study the recess of the eye,

you have a whole series of stroke in red and black chalk

that provide the eyes with their shadow.

It seems to me that, as a technical artist,

Vigée-Lebrun was extremely gifted.

For a woman who did not have formal training,

she is an impeccable technician.

And one of the things about her works is that if they hadn’t been interfered with,

or suffered some accidental damage,

they’re likely to be in an extremely good state of preservation.

She must have known a lot about color, because you rarely see any of these discolorations,

which are caused by alterations in the material.

[narrator] France underwent another revolution: the July Revolution of 1830.

The people of Paris rose up against the authority of Charles X,

barricaded the streets and clashed with the armed forces,

resulting in one thousand deaths.

The son of Philippe Egalité, who had voted for the execution of King Louis XVI,

took the throne under the name Louis Philippe.

It was the start of a new era, and no longer that of Madame Le Brun.

She gave herself over to memories of happier times.

For a dozen years, she took notes and wrote, aided by her nieces,

who copied out the manuscript.

She appended corrections in the margin.

Presumably, she began to write her memoirs when she wrote her first will.

It's as if she felt at peace with herself

and that it was time to let herself write down her memories.

[Geneviève] I think it was a much deeper desire,

that of wanting to live a second time and to relive those moments of happiness,

because there's something very characteristic in the writing of these memoirs

that radiates a glow of happiness, of discovery,

and the most negative things in her life

were only to be found in the accompanying documents.

[Joseph] So she wanted to leave a portrait of herself that she herself sanctioned,

and so she started, she listened to the advisers and she started to write them.

It used to be said that she didn’t write them,

that there were ghost writers who worked for her.

This is not true because we know that there are big batches of her original manuscripts.

[narrator] Though these memoirs are a precious document in terms of the worlds she encountered,

they are equally important as an account of her own life.

Madame Vigée Le Brun recalled a scene with Marie Antoinette

whose veracity still causes controversy.

[Elisabeth] "One day I happened to miss the appointment she had given me for a sitting.

Far gone in my second pregnancy, I had suddenly become unwell.

The next day I hastened to Versailles to offer my excuses.

Her Majesty was finishing her toilet.

My heart was beating violently, for I knew that I was in the wrong.

But the Queen looked up at me and said most amiably,

'I was waiting for you all the morning yesterday. What happened to you?'

'I am sorry to say, Your Majesty,' I replied,

'I was so ill that I was unable to comply with Your Majesty's commands.

I am here to receive more now, and then I will immediately retire.'

'No, no! Do not go!' exclaimed the Queen.

'I do not want you to have made your journey for nothing!'

She revoked the order for her carriage and gave me a sitting.

I remember that, in my confusion and my eagerness to make a fitting response

to her kind words, I opened my paint-box so excitedly

that I spilled my brushes on the floor.

I stooped down to pick them up. 'Never mind, never mind,' said the Queen,

and, for aught I could say, she insisted on gathering them all up herself."

[cheerful classical music]

[Juliette] Naturally, it's good for Vigée Le Brun's ego to say that the queen

picked up her brushes, and that's what you'd put in your memoirs.

Many testimonies support the assertion

that Marie Antoinette was a simple woman,

close to her suppliers, who sometimes dispensed with protocol.

So this anecdote seems probable.

Its inclusion in her memoirs

indicates that Vigée Le Brun attached a lot of importance to this, too.

There's a tendency to embellish the past,

that's quite natural,

and to favor the good memories.

You can at once be quite sincere and yet, in reality,

it may be a lie from a strictly historical perspective.

But this doesn't mean her version is insincere.

[narrator] Aged almost eighty, Madame Vigée was still a famous personality in Paris.

Summer Sundays in Louveciennes, winter in her Parisian apartment in the St Lazare neighborhood,

she threw parties where the younger generations, drawn by her reputation,

would love to hear her anecdotes.

Chateaubriand, Vigny, Musset and Balzac seemed fascinated by this woman,

a brilliant conversationalist,

who was once painter to Marie Antoinette and the courts of Europe.

She had a poetic sensibility and received Vigny at her salon.

She received Chateaubriand,

she liked reading Lamartine,

although she didn't really appreciate Victor Hugo's novel, Notre Dame de Paris.

Politically, she resembles a person like Chateaubriand,

who was very much in favor of a constitutional monarchy.

I think she would have preferred the old regime as it was,

but a constitutional monarchy would have worked for her also.

[Geneviève] This sensitivity to new forms, and new poetry, changed her taste.

[Jerome] She was on the lookout for what was happening.

she heard of Chopin, and things like that.

It was her musical gateway to what we might call modernity.

It heralded the Romantic generation, which interested her.

[narrator] Artists of 1840 rediscovered the charm

of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,

and embraced Neo Gothic fashion.

In painting, the ruins of cathedrals

replaced Hubert Robert's Roman remains.

In tandem with the Troubadourstyle nostalgia,

mid-nineteenth-century France was undergoing profound social, economic and political change.

The accession of the bourgeoisie

to manufacturing and financial affairs

proved a huge shot in the arm for economic growth.

This was the Industrial Revolution,

which was accompanied by the rise of railways and technical advances

in new energies, textiles and metallurgy.

It might be fun to imagine the doubtful reaction

of Queen Marie Antoinette's portraitist faced with these curious miniatures

bearing the strange name daguerreotypes,which first appeared in 1835.

The static bodies, frozen expressions, poor quality rendering

and the crudeness of reality probably inspired thoughts of the end of a world,

her world, that of a talented portrait artist

who knew so well how to embellish the face and to convey the soul.

She passed away quietly in April 1842, attended by her nieces.

Having painted more than 660 portraits, known fame and criticism,

luxury and exile, monarchies and revolutions,

the greatest artists and the most powerful Europeans of her time,

having covered countless tens of thousands of kilometers,

the tireless traveler, eighty-seven years old,

chose this epitaph for her grave in Louveciennes: Here at last I rest.

[slow classical music]