Title: Self-PortraitArtist: Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun
Date: 1800
This is a self-portrait by Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun. In contrast to her self-portrait that we looked at in class this week, she paints herself indoors and in the act of painting, or getting ready to paint. She is sketching the bust of a woman. Like her earlier self-portrait, the artist is nicely dressed. She is wearing gold jewelry and an expensive-looking hair wrap. Unlike Artemesia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting and Sofonisba Anguissola's Self- Portrait at the Easel, in which both artists present themselves as serious artists wearing plain clothing, Vigee Lebrun presents herself as an attractive, well-dressed artist. This has the effect that she seems to be more concerned with her appearance rather than her work. Perhaps she presents herself as an attractive and feminine artist in order to make her art more appealing to her viewers as well as to conform to the world's views of objectified beauty.
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This is SO different from the one we saw in class! I do agree with you that it seems that htis artist is very in touch with her physical beauty, as evidenced by this portrait and the previous one.
ReplyDeleteAlong the lines of our class discussion, I would say that rather than being primarily concerned with her appearance out of vanity, her concern is to present (and promote) herself as as successful, self-confident professional.
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