Isabella Teotochi Marini
Artist: Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (French, 1755-1842)
Date: 1792
Dimensions:
Painting: 19 × 13 7/8 in. (48.3 × 35.2 cm)
frame: 25 1/4 × 20 1/8 × 2 1/2 in. (64.1 × 51.1 × 6.4 cm)
Medium: Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1950.243
Label Text:Court painter and close friend to French queen Marie-Antoinette, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun had to escape the imprisonments and beheadings-by-guillotine of the French Revolution in 1789. In 1792, she was in Venice, where she was introduced to Isabella Teotochi Marini (1760–1836), the subject of this portrait. A divorced woman (shocking at the time!) and a celebrated writer, Marini ran a lively literary meeting (salon) that was frequented by English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Vigée-Le Brun also defied societal norms, becoming one of the most successful portraitists in Europe in a male-dominated art world.
Vigée-Le Brun’s vibrant portrait is inscribed to Marini’s lover, Dominique Vivant Denon, a scholar, archeologist, and writer. The painting reflects the Neoclassical taste in dress at the time. Marini wears loose curls (rather than a wig, which had been the fashion until recently) and a simple, revealing dress inspired by classical Greek and Roman precedents.
Vigée-Le Brun’s vibrant portrait is inscribed to Marini’s lover, Dominique Vivant Denon, a scholar, archeologist, and writer. The painting reflects the Neoclassical taste in dress at the time. Marini wears loose curls (rather than a wig, which had been the fashion until recently) and a simple, revealing dress inspired by classical Greek and Roman precedents.
On view
In Collection(s)