Wonder Woman of the Week: Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun

Elisabeth Le Brun is considered one of the greatests artists of French history and earned that award through her talent at portraiture. Le Brun's work would take her across the corners of Europe where she painted both queens and commoners- but almost exclusively focusing on capturing the lives of women in the time of Napoleon.

Before the French Revolution, Le Brun focused her work on painting the royal women of France and over years of visiting Versailles, Le Brun became the official painter of Marie Antoinette. That role did not last long however, because shortly after Le Brun got her new job, the people of France revolted and overthrew the monarchy. Because of her involvement with the French Royal Family, Le Brun fled France during the time of the reign of terror and the rise of Napoleon.

While the fires of revolution flared in France, Le Brun served the royal courts of the Italian states- painting several royal women before heading to Austria and then Poland- where she would paint the last known painting of the last king of Poland. She then moved to Russia where she would paint the Tsars there along with their close family members. One of Le Brun's more famous paintings depicts the daughters of Catherine the Great.

Le Brun's style is categorized today as a combination of the Rococo and Neoclassical styles of painting- combining the color scheme of the Rococo style (combinations of bold colors of mostly red and blue) with the themes of Neoclassical (with subjects being those of royalty or idealist images of men, women, and children). Le Brun was highly respected among her contemporaries (although perhaps not revolutionary France) and was revered among the established art societies of Europe. Her work today is housed in several art museums across both Europe and North America.