Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Queen's Artist

As she delicately applied the paint, she continued to glance at her subject. The eyes, too, were also quite difficult, because of their color, blue—but which blue? Dark blue, of course, a blue which from far away gave the illusion that the eyes themselves were black or slate-colored. But was the dark blue a blueberry-blue or an amethyst blue or a deep sapphire blue? Madame Vigée-Lebrun had a few portraits ago decided upon the sapphire blue, and she hoped that she could once again create just the right hue.
~from Trianon: A Novel of Royal France by Elena Maria Vidal

Madame Delors has an excellent post about the court artist of Marie-Antoinette. More HERE. And HERE. Share

8 comments:

inês said...

I literally just found out about your blog and I love it already! I'm following your RSS feed :)

elena maria vidal said...

Welcome,Inês. Thank you so much!

Julygirl said...

Her technique and talent is equal to the more (currently) famous male court painters of that era.

May said...

Based on Mme. Lebrun's descriptions, the Queen must have been very impressive, in person.

elena maria vidal said...

I realized late last night that the link to Madame Delors' blog was not working. I have since fixed it but apologize for the inconvenience.

Yes, Matterhorn, the Queen made an impression whether she wanted to or not.

lara77 said...

I loved the paintings of Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun. The delicacy of the complexions and the fabrics of the dresses in so many of her portraits seem to reach out to be touched. Thanks to her we have so many beautiful paitings of Queen Marie Antoinette!

Julygirl said...

Yes, the blog connection was blocked, but I did not go back later to recheck it. I am glad you remedied the problem.

elena maria vidal said...

Yes, I could tell from my Feedjit that no one was going to Catherine's site and I could not figure out why.