The Comtesse de Cérès

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The Comtesse de Cérès

Artist Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (French, 1755-1842)

Place of OriginLondon, England

Date1784

DimensionsPainting: 36 × 29 in. (91.4 × 73.7 cm)
Frame: 46 × 39 1/2 × 4 in. (116.8 × 100.3 × 10.2 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1963.33

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 27

Label TextHints 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 her 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 taste for informal, intimate portraits. Her skill at conveying a sense of naturalness and posed spontaneity helped make her one of the most successful and famous 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 requested my horses for eleven o’clock. Coachman, horses, nothing had come back… I learned that [Madame de Cérès] had spent the night at the Finance Ministry…” Because Vigée-Le Brun’s coach had been seen the Finance Minister’s home, it fed rumors that she herself was having an affair with him.Published References

Vigée-Le Brun, Elisabeth-Louise, Souvenirs de Madame Louise-Elisabeth Vigée LeBrun, Paris, 1935-1937, I, p. 332.

Leymarie, Jean, The Spirit of the Letter in Painting, New York, 1961, p. 29, repr. (col.) p. 76.

"La Chronique des Arts," Supplement to Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. LXIII, no. 1141, Feb. 1964, p. 64, repr. no. 213.

"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art News, vol. 7, no. 4, Winter 1964, p. 100.

Frankfurter, A., "Museum Evaluations, 2: Toledo," Art News, LXIII, no. 9, Jan. 1965, pp. 26, 55-56, repr. p. 26.

Wittmann, Otto, "Treasures for Toledo, Ohio," Apollo, vol. LXXXI, no. 35, Jan. 1965, pp. 28-35, repr. p. 34.

"New Accessions, U.S.A.," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 65, no. 1153, Feb. 1965, no. 211, repr. p. 51.

Toledo Museum of Art: a Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1966, repr. p. 48.

Watson, F.J.B., "Eightenth-Century Painting and Decorative Arts," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, repr. fig. 16, p. 462.

Neilson, Winthrop, Seven Women: Great Painters, Philadelphia, 1969, p. 166, repr. p. 45.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 165, pl. 210.

Baillio, Joseph, "Identification de quelques portraits d'anonymes de Vigée Le Brun aux Etats-Unis," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 96, no. 1342, Nov. 1980, pp. 160, 161, 167, 168 (no. 12-15), fig. 7.

Conisbee, Philip, Painting in Eighteenth-Century France, Oxford, 1981, p. 137, fig. 114.

Baillio, Joseph, Elizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun 1755-1842, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 1982, no. 15, pp. 54-56, repr. p. 54 and (col.) on cover (as possibly a portrait of the Comtesse de Cérès).

Lastic, George de, "Vigée-Le Brun," Gazette de Beaux-Arts, vol. 100, no. 1364, Sept. 1982, p. 34.

Adams, Brooks, "Privileged Portaits: Vigée-Le Brun," Art in America, vol. 70, no. 10, Nov. 1982, p. 80.

Mullins, Edwin, The Painted Witch, London, 1985, p. 114, fig. 55.

Breitling, Gisela, Die Spuren des Schiffs in den Wellen: Eine autobiographische Suche nach den Frauen in der Kunstgeschichte, Frankfurt, Fischer Taschenbuch, 1986, repr. p. 46 (fig. 14).

Shackelford, George T. and Mary Tavener Holmes, A Magic Mirror: the Portrait in France, 1700-1900, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1986, no. 18, pp. 68, 130, repr.

Stuckey, Charles F., French Painting, New York, 1991, repr. (col.) p. 82.

Turley, Robert, Humanities: the Western Creative Heritage, a Student Handbook, Dubuque, 1991, pl. III.

Baillio, Joseph, "Vigée Le Brun: Pastellisted," L'Oeil, no. 452, June 1993, p. 24, ill. 9, p. 26.

Stafford, Barbara Maria, Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images, Cambridge, MA, 1996, fig. 18, p. 48.

Rosenberg, Pierre, La peinture française, Paris, Mengés, 2001, vol. 1, p. 522.

Hesse, Carla Alison, The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern, Princeton, 2001, p. 33, fig. 2.1, p. 34, repr. on cover (col.) and back cover (col. det.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 28, repr. (col.).

Diaconoff, Suellen, Through the Reading Glass: Women, Books and Sex in the French Enlightenment, Albany, State University of New York Press, 2005, pp. 46-7, fig. 15.

Oppenheimer, Margaret A., The French Portrait: Revolution to Restoration, Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art, 2005, no. 46, pp. 179-181, repr. (col.) p. 180.

Goodman, Dena, Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2009, pp. 46-47, repr. p. 47, fig. 119.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 216, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 28, repr. (col.).

Wald Lasowski, Patrick, Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Le Brun: Souvenirs , Paris, Citadelles & Mazenod, 2015, p. 77, ill. 35 repr. (col.) p. 107.

“Elisabeth Louise Vigee le Brun: au Grand Palais,” Connaissance des Arts, H.S. No. 686, 2015, repr. (col.) pp. 2, 10.

Baillio, Joseph, and Xavier Salmon, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais, 2015, no. 58, repr. (col.) p. 174.

Walczak, Gerrit,"Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun", exhibition review, Burlington Magazine, vol. 157, no. 1353, December 2015, p.875-76, no. 67, repr. (col.) p. 875.

Baillio, Joseph, Katherine Baetjer, and Paul Lang, Vigee Le Brun, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, p. 98, repr. (col.) no. 22, p. 99.

Exhibition History

London, Royal Academy, France in the Eighteenth Century, 1968, no. 716.

New York, Wildenstein, Paris and New York, 1977, no. 53.

Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Elizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun 1755-1842, June 5-Aug. 8,1982, no. 15.

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, A Magic Mirror: the Portrait in France, 1700-1900, Oct. 12,1986-Jan. 25, 1987, no. 18.

Northampton, Smith College Museum of Art, The French Portrait: Revolution to Restoration, Sept. 30 - Dec. 11, 2005, no. 46.

Paris, Grand Palais, Galeries nationales; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Musee des Beaux-Arts du Canada, Ottawa, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Sept. 21, 2015 - Sept. 12, 2016.

Baltimore, MD, Baltimore Museum of Art; Toronto, Ontario, Art Gallery of Ontario, Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800, Oct. 1, 2023 - July 1, 2024.