Madame Jacques François Le Sèvre, the Artist’s Mother

Madame Jacques François Le Sèvre, the Artist’s Mother

Madame Jacques François Le Sèvre, the Artist’s Mother
Artist:Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, Paris 1755–1842 Paris)
Date:ca. 1774–78
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:Oval, 25 5/8 × 21 1/4 in. (65 × 54 cm)
Frame: 32 3/16 × 28 1/8 × 2 1/16 in. (81.7 × 71.5 × 5.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Private collection

The sitter (1728–1800) had married Louis Vigée (1715–1767), a portraitist and official at the Académie de Saint-Luc, and then, after his death, Jacques Le Sèvre, a goldsmith. Madame Le Sèvre encouraged her adolescent daughter’s professional aspirations by chaperoning her sittings and taking her to see works of art. Vigée’s mother wears a satin cloak trimmed with swans’ down and bows of a color the artist particularly favored.

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