Art Chowder September | October Issue No. 29 | Page 37
After Italy Mme. Le Brun traveled
to Vienna, where in her memoirs
she lists 29 paintings and 24 pastels.
Two of the former were of the young,
lovely Princess Liechtenstein, whom
she describes as “very well made:
her pretty face having a sweet and
heavenly expression, which gave me
the idea of representing her as Iris.
She was painted standing, springing
into the air.” She painted her barefoot,
which scandalized members of the
family for the princess to appear
without shoes, and recounts how
the prince, who commissioned the
work, found a little pair of slippers
and placed them under the portrait,
explaining to the grandparents that her
shoes came off and fell to earth. The
smaller bust-length version shown
here was also painted in Vienna. Here,
with the angle of the subject’s torso
and the flowing long curls of her hair,
the artist employs devices she used to
give a sense of lively movement.
Departing Vienna in April 1795 and
passing through Prague, Dresden,
and Berlin, Mme. Le Brun reached
St. Petersburg in July. Scarcely
twenty-four hours later the French
Ambassador called to inform her
that the empress would receive her
the next afternoon at one o’clock.
With little time to freshen up and
none to aquire an appropriate
court gown, she was a bit anxious
to find herself “tête-à-tête with
the autocrat of all the Russias.
Catherine greeted her kindly, “I am
charmed, madame, to receive you
here; your reputation preceded you.
I very much love the arts, painting
above all. I am not a connoiseur, but
an amateur,” and proceeded to wish
that she would enjoy Russia enough
to stay a long time, all with such
grand benevolence that her timidity
vanished.
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Grand Duchesses Alexandra Pavlovna and
Elena Pavlovna
1796
oil on canvas
391/4 x 39 1/4”
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
The younger of the two on the
right holds a miniature of their
grandmother, Catherine II.
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Princess Karoline von Liechtenstein
(née Countess von Manderscheit)
as Iris
1793
Oil on canvas
25 3/4 x 21 1/8”
Private collection
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