105. Self-Portrait. Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun. 1790 CE Oil on canvas.

• Form
  • Light Rococo touch in the coloring
  • Inspired by the portraits of Rubens
• Context
  • Forty self-portraits exist, all highly idealized
  • The artist was 45 when this was painted, but she appears much younger
  • Painted in Rome during the French Revolution when the artist was exiled for political reasons
  • The artist was granted admission to the male-dominated French Royal Academy through influence of Marie Antoinette
  • The artist looks at the viewer as she paints a portrait of the French queen Marie Antoinette, who is rendered from memory since she was killed during the French Revolution
  • Subject in the painting looks admiringly upon the painter