Julie Le Brun as Flora

Julie Le Brun as Flora

Julie Le Brun as Flora
Artist:Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, Paris 1755–1842 Paris)
Date:ca. 1799
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:51 × 38 1/2 in. (129.5 × 97.8 cm)
Frame: 62 1/2 × 50 1/2 in. (158.8 × 128.3 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, Rexford Stead Art Purchase Fund (1983.5)

The successive portraits of Vigée Le Brun’s daughter Julie (1780–1819) are milestones in the history of a passionate, conflicted mother-daughter relationship. In the present work, Julie is depicted as Flora, the goddess of flowers who gives birth to spring. She is exposed to the whims of Zephyr, the wind god who wed Flora and swept her away. As if fulfilling a prophecy, Julie soon married against her mother’s wishes and the two parted.

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