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PERIOD PORTRAIT OIL PAINTING OF E. L. VIGÉE-Le BRUN |
 | Buy, Bid or See more options |
Curent Price | 810 USD |
Item # | 270302682880 |
Status | Completed |
Subject | Figures, Portraits |
Date of Creation | 1800-1899 |
Medium | Oil |
Style | Realism |
Original/ Reproduction | Original |
Listed By | Dealer or Reseller |
Region of Origin | Europe |
Signed? | Unsigned |
Size Type/ Largest Dimension | Medium (Up to 30") |
Primary Material | Mixed Materials |
Type | Picture Frames |
End time | 11/27/2008 2:00:00 PM (EST)
|
Ships From | San Francisco |
Category | Art > Art from Dealers & Resellers > Paintings |
PERIOD PORTRAIT OIL PAINTING OF E. L. VIGÉE-Le BRUN
Poss. Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun (1755-1842)
Bonhams Provenance
Currently, I am having my 2nd annual "Fabulous Fall" sale.
This is a special 2 session auction that features many important paintings by many important artists.
This painting is 100% guaranteed, as described.
This painting is 100% guaranteed, as described and was purchased from Bonham's and Butterfields (San Francisco).
Please note: The brown spots seen in the digital images are not as visible when viewing the painting in person.
Possible Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun...hmmm...am I crazy? Let's take the "art politics" out of the auction. No, I have not gotten an opinion from an "expert" whether it may or may not be a Vigee-Le Brun. Why? One person may say "yes", another may say "no". Let's look at the facts.
Pros:
1. The quality is exceptional...straight museum quality!
2. Based on the permification and oxidation of the wood and pigments, the painting would have been done in Le Brun's lifetime
(1842 or earlier).
3. A finished and much larger version exists at The Uffizzi Gallery (Florence, Italy). This gallery had asked her to paint
her self portrait, in 1790.
4. Being a very academically based painter, no studies for this painting have been found. The studies must be somewhere...???
5. Le Brun was known for making numerous copies of her own work. In fact, if you go to:
You will discover that Le Brun did 37 self portraits between 1778-1818. 17 were originals and 20 were copies done by Le Brun!
6. Why would she sign a study of herself?
Cons:
1. Besides Bonhams, I do not have any further provenance. As you may be aware, many auction houses do not give out information
about the estates they represent.
2. This painting has not gone through the "political process".
Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun life is well documented. There are many good biographies about her. The biography that I would like to share with you comes from "Wikipedia":
"Biography From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (April 16, 1755 - March 30, 1842) was a French painter, and is recognized as the most famous woman painter of the eighteenth century. Her style is generally considered Rococo and shows interest in the subject of neoclassical painting. Vigée-Le Brun cannot be considered a purely Neoclassist in that she creates mostly portraits in Neoclassical dress rather than the History painting. In her choice of color and style while serving as the portrait painter to the Queen, Vigée-Le Brun is purely Rococo.
Early life
She was born in Paris on 16 April 1755, Marie Élisabeth-Louise Vigée, the daughter of a portraitist and fan painter, Louis Vigée, from whom she received her first instruction. Her mother was a hairdresser.[1] She was sent to live with relatives in Epernon until the age of 6 when she entered a convent where she remained for five years. Her father died when she was 12 years old. In 1768, her mother married a wealthy jeweler, Jacques-Francois Le Sèvre and the family moved to the rue Saint-Honoré close to the Palais Royal. During this period Elisabeth benefited by the advice of Gabriel François Doyen, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Joseph Vernet, and other masters of the period.
By the time she was in her early teens, Elisabeth was painting portraits professionally. After her studio was seized, for practicing without a license, she applied to the Académie de Saint Luc, which unwillingly exhibited her works in their Salon. On 25 October 1774, she was made a member of the Académie.
On 7 August 1775 she married Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, a painter and art dealer. Vigée-Le Brun painted portraits of many of the nobility of the day and as her career blossomed, she was invited to the Palace of Versailles to paint Marie Antoinette, the French Queen consort.
So pleased was the queen that over the next several years, Vigée-Le Brun was commissioned to do numerous portraits of the queen, her children, and other members of the royal family and household. On 12 February 1780 Vigée-Le Brun gave birth to a daughter Jeanne Julie Louise, whom she called "Julie".
In 1781 she and her husband toured Flanders and the Netherlands where seeing the works of the Flemish masters inspired her to try new techniques. There, she painted portraits of some of the nobility, including the Prince of Nassau.
On May 31, 1783, Vigée Le Brun was accepted as a member of France's Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture as a painter of historical allegory. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard also was admitted on the same day.
The admission of Vigée-Le Brun was opposed on the grounds that her husband was an art dealer, but eventually they were overruled by an order from Louis XVI because Marie-Antoinette put considerable pressure on her husband on behalf of her painter.
The admission of more than one woman on the same day to the Académie encouraged comparisons among the works of the women instead of one woman contrasted with the existing members, who were men.
In 1789, she was succeeded as court painter to Marie Antoinette by Alexander Kucharsky.
French Revolution
After the arrest of the royal family during the French Revolution Vigée-Le Brun fled France with her young daughter Julie. She lived and worked for some years in Italy, Austria, and Russia, where her experience in dealing with an aristocratic clientèle was still useful. In Rome, her paintings met with great critical acclaim and she was elected to the Roman Accademia di San Luca.
In Russia, she was received by the nobility and painted numerous members of the family of Catherine the Great. While there, Vigée-Le Brun was made a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg. Much to Vigée-Le Brun's dismay, Julie married a Russian nobleman.[2]
She was welcomed back to France during the reign of Emperor Napoleon I. Much in demand by the élite of Europe, she visited England at the beginning of the nineteenth century and painted the portrait of several British notables including Lord Byron. In 1807 she traveled to Switzerland and was made an honorary member of the Société pour l'Avancement des Beaux-Arts of Geneva.
She published her memoirs in 1835 and 1837, which provide an interesting view of the training of artists at the end of the period dominated by royal academies. Her portrait of fellow neoclassical painter, Hubert Robert, is in Paris at Musee National du Louvre.
Still very active with her painting in her fifties, she purchased a house in Louveciennes, Île-de-France, and lived there until the house was seized by the Prussian Army during the war in 1814. She stayed in Paris until her death on March 30, 1842 when her body was taken back to Louveciennes and buried in the cemetery near her old home.
Her tombstone epitaph states "Ici, enfin, je repose…" (Here, at last, I rest…).
Vigée-Le Brun left a legacy of 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. In addition to private collections, her works may be found at major museums, such as Hermitage Museum, London's National Gallery, in Europe and the United States.
Item Details and Condition:
This unsigned oil on wood measures 25" by 18.5", with its' frame. The actual painting measures 8.25" by 6.75".
The painting is in good, overall condition. The painting is dirty and should benefit from a cleaning.
The 3" wide frame has numerous scratches and chips, but is still very presentable. Many of these chips have been gold-leafed nad not restored. The frame is old, but is not as old as the painting. A new liner and backing have been added for conservation and shipping purposes.
When examining the painting under the ultraviolet light, I did find evidence of a previous conservation treatment. Inpainting acounted for about 1% of the painting's total surface area.
If you have the time, this painting is really worth researching. Due to the "politics" involved in art and since I have not contacted an "expert", I am selling this oil painting as being done in "the manner of" Le Brun. I truly believe the quality of this painting speaks for itself. I do not wish to debate it.
Good luck on becoming the winning bidder of this old portrait oil painting of a young Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Le Brun.
*With the holidays amongst us, all items will be shipped within 24 hours after receiving the winning bidder's cleared payment.*
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Shipping and Insurance Costs:
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Full Insurance, Handling Costs and Online Tracking is included in shipping fee ! (Once your item has been shipped, you will receive an email with a tracking number).
For the international bidders, U.S. law states that I must declare the actual value of any item that I sale, on the customs' forms. Unfortunately, this leaves the buyers outside the United States are responsible for all shipping, insurance, import taxes and customs duty fees. The cost of packaging is included in the shipping charge. Within the USA we prefer to ship Federal Express Ground service. However, we will ship using other carriers as well. | |
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