The Comtesse de Cérès
Artist: Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (French, 1755-1842)
Date: 1784
Dimensions:
Image: 36 × 29 in. (91.4 × 73.7 cm)
Frame: 46 × 39 1/4 × 4 in. (116.8 × 99.7 × 10.2 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1963.33
Label Text:Hints of a lively personality shine through in this portrait of Anne-Marie-Thérèse de Rabaudy Montoussin, comtesse de Cérès (1759–1834). The young countess, fashionably dressed in black lace-trimmed shawl, ostrich-plumed hat, and powdered hair, has just finished writing a letter and is folding it to send. By placing her subject in a domestic interior engaged in a private activity, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun displays the new French taste for informal, intimate portraits. Her skill at conveying both naturalness and posed spontaneity made her one of the most successful portraitists of the 18th century.
Vigée-Le Brun came to regret her association with the comtesse, who was having an affair with French Finance Minister Charles-Alexandre de Calonne. She wrote in her memoirs, “while I was painting her portrait, she did me an atrocious disservice. In her ingratiating way she asked me to lend her my horses and carriage to take her to the theater… The next morning…I learned that [Cérès] had spent the night at the Finance Ministry.” Because Vigée-Le Brun’s coach had been seen there, it fed rumors that she herself was having an affair with Calonne, a scandal that damaged her reputation.
Vigée-Le Brun came to regret her association with the comtesse, who was having an affair with French Finance Minister Charles-Alexandre de Calonne. She wrote in her memoirs, “while I was painting her portrait, she did me an atrocious disservice. In her ingratiating way she asked me to lend her my horses and carriage to take her to the theater… The next morning…I learned that [Cérès] had spent the night at the Finance Ministry.” Because Vigée-Le Brun’s coach had been seen there, it fed rumors that she herself was having an affair with Calonne, a scandal that damaged her reputation.
Not on view
In Collection(s)