Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, had an image problem: she was seen as frivolous, silly, and out-of-touch. In order to combat her poor press, the royal court commissioned a series of portraits of the queen to make her more relatable and sympathetic. Such images act as excellent propaganda machines, giving Marie Antoinette a much-needed positive spin. But what is even more marvelous is the backstory of the artist who created these portraits-- because the painter who was chosen to portray the highest woman in the land was… another woman.
Talk about a revolution.
In the third episode of the ArtCurious Podcast, we'll look at the lucky and semi-charmed life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, one of the most popular painters of 18th-century France and the official court painter of Marie Antoinette.
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Want even MORE information? Check out the links below:
[Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun's memoirs
](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/lebrun/memoirs/memoirs.html#I))
[ She Painted Marie Antoinette (and Escaped the Guillotine)
](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/arts/design/review-vigee-le-brun-metropolitan-museum.html))
The Praise and Prejudices Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun Faced in her Exceptional 18th-Century Caree)r
[Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France
](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-jaques/vigee-le-brun-woman-artis_b_9222096.html))
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