Art Chowder September | October Issue No. 29 | Page 38

Mme. Le Brun loved St. Petersburg, where
she was welcomed, found new friends and
reconnected with old friends and acquaintances
there. Her memoirs observe its seasons, society,
the splendor of grand balls, concerts and theatre
performances, the many beautiful women at
court, lavish hospitality, fireworks, architecture
and gardens, a thousand boats coming and going
on the Neva River . . .
With no lack of work, she painted from morning
to evening, except on Sundays when she had to
allow two hours for those who wished to visit
her atelier.
She held the Russian people of all stations in
high regard, considering them capable and
intelligent, and in general honest and gentle by
nature, and noted an overall lack of crime. Mme.
Le Brun profoundly admired Catherine the
Great, for the simplicity and lack of affectation
in her temperament and daily routines, combined
with the great authority she wielded for the glory
of Russia and the well being of its people, listing
a number of tangible projects: villages built
of stone because wood so easily burns down,
schools, canals, a legal code, innoculations
against disease. Le Brun saw the people of
Russia happy and blessed under her reign. The
reign of her son Paul I, who succeeded her, was
another matter.
The double portrait of his daughters, the
grand duchesses Alexandra Pavlovna and
Elena Pavlovna was commissioned by their
grandmother, Catherine II. By the artist’s
reckoning they were about thirteen or fourteen
when she painted them. Their faces she
described as celestial, the coloration of their skin
so fine and delicate as if they lived on ambrosia.
A maid of honor in the court of Catherine II and
a neighbor and companion of the artist, Countess
Varvara Nikolayevna Golovina, née Princess
Golitsyna (1766-1821) is described in Mme.
Le Brun’s Souvenirs as “a charming woman,
intelligent and gifted, and she herself was often
our only entertainment, for she received very
few visitors. She drew very well and composed
delightful songs, which she sang to her own
accompaniment on the piano.
38 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of Countess Golovina
c. 1797-1800
Oil on canvas
32.8 x 26.2”
Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, England
Moreover, she was on the watch for all the literary novelties in Europe,
which I believe were known at her house as soon as they were in Paris.”
Her own memoirs were translated into English and published in 1910 as
Memoirs of Countess Golovine, a lady at the court of Catherine II.
Le Brun’s recounting of how the public atmosphere in Russia changed to
gloom and fear is beyond the present scope, but from her observations,
Paul I today might well be described as a paranoid schizophrenic. His fear
of plots and assassination proved true. Nevertheless, he too was an art
lover, and before she left Russia, Mme. Le Brun was made a member of the
Academy of St. Petersburg. In appreciation she donated what was said to be
her favorite self- portrait, now in the Hermitage, which Catherine had built.
Mme. Le Brun returned to France in 1802. In 1807 Napoleon
commissioned a portrait of his sister, Caroline Murat and her daughter. In
her memoirs the artist records, “I could not conceivably describe all the
annoyances, all the torments I underwent in painting this picture.”