Madame d'Aguesseau de Fresnes

1789

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Artist, French, 1755 - 1842

Shown from the knees up, a young woman with pale skin, wearing a short wine-red jacket over an ivory-white gown, gazes out at us from this vertical portrait painting. She sits in a chair surrounded by emerald-green cushions, which are covered with a light green floral pattern. The woman’s shoulders are squared toward us as her knees angle slightly to our right. The skirt of her gown is patterned with coin-sized gold dots against the white background, and the scooped neckline of her bodice is trimmed with gold ribbon. The top of at least four buttons on her velvet jacket are buttoned under her bust, and a cinnamon-brown belt with an iron-gray buckle, perhaps a cameo, cinches her waist. Her long, ash-brown hair is loosely pulled up with curls faming her face and falling to her shoulders. One braided plait is interwoven through a loose white turban, the ends of which drape over her shoulders. She has gray eyes under thin brows, a rose-red bow mouth, and her cheeks are tinged with pink. Gleaming, laurel-green drop earrings dangle from her ears. Her right arm, to our left, rests on an oversized green cushion, which balances on the carved, gold arm of her chair. Soft light from the upper left glints on the gold ribbons of the turban and cushion, and on her earrings and jacket buttons. The wall behind her is mottled with smoke gray and moss green. The artist has signed and dated the painting in the upper right, “Mde Le Brun 1789.”

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What do our clothing choices say about us? This young aristocrat wears three of the biggest fashion trends of late-18th-century France. Her turban and jacket were inspired by Turkish dress. Her muslin and silk blouse and skirt evoke the flowing robes of ancient Greece and Rome. And the Wedgwood cameo at her waist depicts a scene from a British novel. One of Queen Marie Antoinette’s favorite artists, Vigée Le Brun made her name painting portraits of fashionable women, using clothing to define their public images. This portrait shows how consumer fashion, which came into its own during this period, borrowed from global cultures and allowed the wealthy to shape their identities.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 107 x 83.2 cm (42 1/8 x 32 3/4 in.)
    framed: 133.7 x 111.8 cm (52 5/8 x 44 in.)

  • Accession

    1946.7.16

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Presumably the collection of the sitter and her family; possibly (Ferol, Paris), c. 1850.[1] Mrs. Stephen Lyne-Stephens [1813-1894, née Yolande-Marie-Louise Duvernay],[2] Lynford Hall, Norfolk, Upper Grove House, Roehampton, and Paris; (her estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9-11 and 13-17 May 1895, 3rd day [May 11], no. 360, sold for 2,250 guineas); (Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London); sold 13 May 1895 to J. Pierpont Morgan I [1837-1913], London;[3] consigned July 1943 by the Morgan estate to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold October 1943 to (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York); purchased 3 January 1944 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1946 to NGA.
[1] According to T. Humphry Ward and William Roberts, Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince's Gate & Dover House, London: Dutch & Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, 2 vols., London, 1907: unpaginated. Frits Lugt, Répertoir des catalogues de ventes publiques intéressant l'art ou la curiosité, 4 vols., The Hague, 1939-1964: 2:nos. 22745 and 25136, records two sales in the 1850s for the dealer Férol, one of 22 January 1856, in which there were paintings, and the second on 7-8 December 1859, composed of prints and books. The NGA portrait was featured in neither.
[2] On the life and career of Mrs. Stephens Lyne-Stephens (earlier in her life, the French ballerina Pauline Duvernay), who was an art collector of considerable stature, see Louis Véron, Les mémoires d'un bourgeois de Paris, 6 vols., Paris, 1854; Charles Boigne, Ces demoiselles de l'opéra, Paris, 1887: 110-118; Lillian Moore, "Pauline Duvernay," The Dancing Times (January 1934): 449-452; Cyril W. Beaumont, Three French Dancers of the Nineteenth Century: Duvernay, Livry, and Beaugrand, London, 1935; Ivor Forbes Guest, The Romantic Ballet in Paris, Middletown, Connecticut, 1966.
[3] On p. 34 of the Saterlee Album (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library Archives), there is a photograph of the upstairs drawing room of J.P. Morgan's London home at Princes Gate (see J. Pierpont Morgan, Collector: European Decorative Arts from the Wadsworth Atheneum, exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1987: 32, fig. 7, 35, fig. 10). The painting is included in J.P. Morgan Jr.'s list of Morgan possessions lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1912 (document in the Morgan Library, box 168, folder 3, p. 143, no. 1347, as the "Portrait of the Marquise de Laborde by Vigée Le Brun...," with the Morgan inventory number 1341); Eliot W. Rowlands, personal communication with Joseph Baillio.
[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1674.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1896

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1896, no. 53.

1898

  • Pictures by Painters of the French School, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1898, no.80.

1946

  • Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 788.

1982

  • Baillio, Joseph. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. (Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum.) Fort Worth, 1982: 88, under no. 28, fig. 31.

Bibliography

1835

  • Vigée Le Brun, Élisabeth Louise. Souvenirs de Madame Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. 3 vols. Paris, 1835 – 1837: 1:337.

1897

  • Roberts, William. Memorials of Christie's: A Record of Art Sales From 1766 to 1896. 2 vols. London, 1897: 2:250, repro.

1907

  • Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, English School. London, privatedly printed, 1907: unpaginated.

  • Ward, T. Humphry and William Roberts. "Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince's Gate." (Dover House, London): Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, 2 vols. London, 1907: 2: n.p.

1908

  • Nolhac, Pierre de. Madame Vigée-Le Brun: Peintre de la reine Marie-Antoinette. Paris, 1908: 143.

1913

  • Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 8, no. 1 (January 1913): 12.

  • Graves, Algernon. _ A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813 – 1912_. 5 vols. London, 1913 – 1915: 2:668.

  • Burroughs, Bryson. "A Loan Exhibition of Mr. Morgan’s Paintings." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 8 (January 1913): 12.

1915

  • Helm, W. H. Vigée-Lebrun 1755-1842: Her Life, Works, and Friendships. London, 1915: 203, as Madame de Laborde.

1919

  • Blum, André. Madame Vigée-Lebrun, peintre des grandes dames du xviii e siècle. Paris, 1919: 94.

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 166, repro., as Marquise de Laborde.

  • National Gallery of Art. "Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection." Washington, 1945. Reprint 1947, 1959: 166, repro.

1946

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. Supplement to the Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1946: 67, repro. Marquise de Laborde.

  • National Gallery of Art. Recent Additions to the Kress Collection. Washington, 1946: n.p.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. “Supplement to the Kress Collection in the National Gallery.” Art News 44, no. 20 (February 1946): 84, 82, repro., 83, repro. (detail).

1948

  • Wildenstein and Company. French XVIIIth Century Paintings. New York, 1948: 4.

  • New York. "French XVIIIth Century Paintings." (Exh. cat. Wildestein & Co.) New York, 1948: n.p.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 128, color repro.

1956

  • Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 244, repro. 248.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 362, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art. "Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection" 2nd ed. Washington, 1959: 362, repro., no. 788.

1962

  • Smith, David Loeffler. "Observations on a Few Celebrated Women Artists." American Artist (January 1962): 52, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 317, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 136.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 124, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 366, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 343, no. 466, color repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 361-362, fig. 328.

1980

  • Baillio, Joseph. "Identification de quelques portraits d'anonymes de Vigée Le Brun au Etats-Unis". Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th per., no 96 (November 1980): 158, repro.

1982

  • Baillio, Joseph. "Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun." (Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum.) Fort Worth, 1982: 88, under no. 28, fig. 31.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 341, no. 464, color repro.

  • Walker, John. "National Gallery of Art, Washington." New York, 1984: 341, no. 464, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 424, repro.

1988

  • Ribeiro, Aileen. Fashion in the French Revolution. London, 1988: 38-39, repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 175, repro.

1997

  • Mittler, Gene A., and Rosalind Ragans. Understanding Art. New York, 1997: 186, fig. 12-11.

  • Mitchell, Jerrine. “Picturing Sisters: 1790 Portraits by J. L. David.” 18th Century Studies 31, no. 2 (Winter 1997 – 1998): 194, fig. 14.

2000

  • Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 8, under fig. 2.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 61, fig. 70, 74 (not in the exhibition).

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 94, 443-449, color repro.

Inscriptions

upper right: Mde Le Brun / 1789.
On reverse of cradle: encapsulated and secured, printed label, "THE/ LYNE STEPHENS COLLECTION./ NO 360/ MADAME VIGÉE LE BRUN./ Portrait of a Lady in white muslin dress/ and claret-colored jacket, seated/ on a green divan./ 41 by [illegible] inches./ Painted on panel [illegible] tration/ Ce tableau représent ROSALIE CLAIRE JOSEPHINE DE/ NETTINE, née en 1713, mariée en 1821./Dans le mémoires de Me. Vigée Le Brun, on dit qu'elle peignit ce portrait en 1775. Me. de la Borde avait donc 38 ans.

Wikidata ID

Q20179648

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