BRONZE AFTER THE SELF-PORTRAIT OF MADAME VIGEE-LEBRUN WITH HER DAUGHTER, JULIE

Bronze group with brown patina after the self-portrait with her daughter Jeanne-Lucie-Louise dite Julie, painted by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1789 and now in the Musée du Louvre. It stands on a stepped red marble base. Titled on the base. 19th century.

In 1786, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted a self-portrait with her daughter, which was exhibited at the Salon of 1787. The truthfulness of the feelings depicted in the painting so moved the public that it was quickly dubbed "La Tendresse maternelle" ("Motherly Tenderness"). In the wake of this success, and at the request of the Comte d'Angiviller, Director General of the King's Buildings, the artist painted an equally renowned variant in Greek costume in 1789. If these two portraits struck a chord in their time, it's because they crystallized the change that was then taking place in mentalities concerning the place of the mother and the conception of maternal love. Since the middle of the century, there had been a global infatuation with everything to do with "Nature": unprecedented development of the natural sciences, interest in the lives of "wild" populations discovered during voyages of exploration around the globe. The expressiveness of feelings that had hitherto been difficult to conceal became part of this general movement. In society, art and literature, emotion - particularly in its tearful form - plays a major role. This highly cultural construction of Nature has consequences for the perception of maternal feelings, now considered "instinctive". The mother and her love for her child are glorified by society. The tenderly embracing poses in Vigée Le Brun's portraits of her daughter materialize the mother's dual feelings of love and protection for her child. A recurring model in her mother's paintings, Julie is captured at her best in the spontaneity of her childlike gestures, turned around with an impression of slight surprise in the first painting, of charming cheerfulness in the second. The 1789 painting that served as the model for our bronze, "Madame Vigée-Lebrun and her daughter, Jeanne-Lucie-Louise, dite Julie", is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Circa: 1850

Dim: W:35cm, D:21cm, H:56cm.

Condition report Very good condition.