Self-Portrait in a straw hat

The painting shows a woman dressed in a historical costume. She is wearing a wide hat decorated with flowers and feathers, a pink dress with wide black sleeves and a white ruffled collar. In her left hand she holds a palette with paints and a brush, suggesting that she is an artist. The background of the painting is blurred, with a hint of sky.

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Prevailing color of this fine art print is blue and its shape is portrait. This image is printed on demand - you can choose material, size and finishing.

A globally recognized French Baroque painter, Marie-Élisabeth Louise Vigée (1755-1842) was born in Paris into a family of painters. She learned the basics of painting from her father, who died in 1768 of suffocation due to fish bones. Already at a young age, she began to paint in her illegal studio. It was, however, soon closed and her equipment confiscated. She studied at the Academie de Saint Luc. When she was still a young girl, her mother’s friend introduced her to the future Queen Marie Antoinette. A few years later, the queen accepted Vigée as a member of the Académie Royale de Pentura te de Sculpture. Her social status rose rapidly and she remained good friends with Marie Antoinette. When riots broke out in France in 1789, Vigée was forced to leave for Italy. Her reputation preceded her, and so all the doors were open to her. They welcomed her enthusiastically in all cities and artistic institutions. Vigée also travelled through Prague and Berlin to St. Petersburg, where she was welcomed by Catherine the Great. Vigée painted several portraits of the entire royal family. She did not manage to paint Catherine the Great before her death. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in 1799, Vigée stopped in Paris on her way to England. She found, however, that many of her friends were dead. In her life, she drew nearly 1,500 paintings, of which almost half were portraits of European monarchs and nobles. She died in Paris at age 87.