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1907 30th Triennial Conclave Knight Templar Portrait Plate "Madame Le Brun with her Daughter"
This plate has a gorgeous gold border and pictures "Madame LeBrun And Her Daugther" It is marked by the maker "Knowles, Taylor & Knowles" of East Liverpool, Ohio, USA". It was made for Pittsburgh Commandery No. 1 to commemorate (the 30th) Knight Templar Triennial in Saratoga New York". It measures 8 inches in diameter. The story of the picture Probably we think we know just how we look and yet I wonder how many of us could tell it to an artist so plainly that he would be able to paint our portrait. Perhaps at best all we could tell him would be that his picture did not look like us, though without knowing why. But it is true that many great artists have painted their own portraits, and very good likenesses they are, too. In some ways it ought to be easy, for as they are their own models they can sit for their pictures as often and as long as they wish. Madame Lebrun had been planning for some time perhaps to paint a portrait of herself. Then, just as she was all ready and seated in front of a long mirror, the door had opened suddenly and in had come her little daughter. With a hop and a jump she had thrown herself into her mother's arms. Then with her arms still about her mother's neck, she had happened to think of the mirror, and half turning there she had seen herself held close in her mother's embrace. Madame Lebrun realized at once what a lovely picture it would make, and so she began to paint it. How much they resemble each other! The little girl's name was Jeanne Julie Louise Lebrun, and she must have been very lovely indeed. Her mother tells us, "She was charming in every respect. Her large blue eyes sparkling with spirit, her slightly tip-tilted nose, her pretty mouth, magnificent teeth, a dazzling fresh complexion, all went to make up one of the sweetest faces to be seen." She did not care to draw and paint as her mother did, but she loved to write stories. How proud of her lovely mother she seems to be! And indeed she ought to look proud, and happy too, for perhaps there never was a little girl more petted and loved. Imagine how proud she must have felt that her mother was such a great artist, and painted beautiful pictures which every one admired and which, with her pleasant ways, made her one of the most beloved women in France. The light in the picture seems to come from a window at the left-hand side and to fall directly upon the faces of the mother and child. So interested are we in them we do not realize that there is no landscape background, only a suggestion of a curtain or screen against which the two faces stand out clearly. The mother is dressed in white, the daughter in a blue which matches her merry blue eyes. To us these two can never grow sad or old, and we are glad Madame Lebrun looked in her mirror and gave us this beautiful picture. MADAME LEBRUN AND HER DAUGHTER Once a mirror, tall and stately, While the artist, glancing in it, As she sat thus at her mirror, Quickly threw her arms about her, Both into the mirror glancing, Then the artist seized her brushes, And the artist, painting quickly, When at last the work was ended,
A self-portrait A Short Biography of Vigée Le Brun By Rich Carlson Elisabeth Louise Vigee was born 16 April 1755 in Paris, the daughter of portaitist Louise Vigee and his wife Jean Maissin, a hairdresser. Only 3 months old, Elisabeth was sent to a small farm near Epernon, and cared for by a peasant woman until, at the age of five, her parents enrolled her in the Couvent de la Trinite. After 7 years, she returned to her parents in Paris and was allowed to attend drawing classes under her father. She was able to spend only a few months with him before his death (9 May 1767). She continued to pursue drawing and painting by copying paintings in private collections and painting portraits of family members, learning her skills without apprenticing to a master. Within three years she was painting portraits professionally. After her studio was seized for practicing without a license, she applied to the Academie de Saint Luc, exhibited works in their Salon, and was installed as a member on 25 October 1774. The following year, her step father retired and moved the family to an apartment in the home of Jean Baptiste Pierre LeBrun, a painter and art dealer. On 11 January 1776, Elisabeth Louise married Jean Baptiste. Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun frequently paintined the portraits of
royalty and was summoned to Versailles in 1778 to paint the Queen Marie
Antoinette. Her only daughter, Julie, was born 12 February 1780. In 1781 she
toured Flanders and Holland with her husband. The works of Rubens and other
Flemish masters inspired her to try new techniques such as painting on wooden
panel rather than canvas and using thin coats of paint to create effects of
luminosity and depth. Her
On 31 May 1783, she was accepted as a member of the Académie
Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture as a painter of historical allegory. Her
admission was opposed by the Director of the Academie, but a direct command by
King Louis XVI (encouraged by the Queen Marie Antoinette, Elisabeth's friend)
ensured her acceptance. The Académie session skipped the formalities typically
due a new member, and entered in the minutes that she was admitted only out of
"profound respect [to] the orders of its Sovereign." As a woman (for whom only a
few seats were allowed), her admission as a painter of historical allegory,
rather than as a painter of portraits or still lifes, was a triumph great enough
to overshadow any lack of formalities. As her entry piece, she displayed
After her admission, she was allowed to exhibit at the Salon
and did so often. Her work grew in popularity and received increasingly
laudatory critical reviews despite personal slanders against her and her
association with the Royalty. (e.g.
By 1789, accusations of impropriety and adultery had destroyed
her public reputation. She fled Paris with her daughter after revolutionary mobs
seized Versailles on 6 October. (She had been staying with a friend, Alexandre-Theodore
Brongniart Elisabeth left Vienna and traveled to St. Petersburg. She remained in Russia six years. She was a favorite of the royalty and earned large sums for her paintings. She was also received as a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg. In 1800, Julie LeBrun married Gaetan Bernard Nigris, secretary to the Director of the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg, despite her mothers protestations. The two women broke ties and Elisabeth moved to Moscow. After a petition signed by 255 artists, writers, and scientists was presented in Madame Vigee LeBrun's behalf, she was removed from the list of émigrés and given permission to return safely to France. She returned to St. Petersburg in 1801 and then traveled to Berlin for six months before returning to Paris. While in Germany she was again recognized as a member of the Academy. Julie remained in Russia with her husband. Despite her divorce, Elisabeth returned to the Hotel LeBrun. In 1803, she traveled to London and painted there for two years. She returned to Paris in 1805 after visiting Holland and Belgium. Julie had returned to Paris a year before, but the relationship between mother and daughter remained strained. In the following years, Vigee LeBrun made several trips to Switzerland. In 1807 she was made an honorary member of the Societe pour l'Avancement des Beaux-Arts of Geneva. In 1804, Nigris returned to St. Petersburg ending his marriage to Julie. Elisabeth purchased a house in Louveciennes in 1809 and lived there and in Paris until the house was seized by Prussians in 1814. Jean Baptiste LeBrun died on 7 August 1813. After this date, Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun remained in Paris until her death in 1842.
Her Daughter Julie Le Brun In 1819, her daughter
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