LOUISE - ELISABETH VIGÉE LE BRUN
Paris 1755 - Paris 1842

Portrait Of Hyacinthe Gabrielle Roland, Countess Of Mornington,

Oil On Canvas: 99 x 75 cm (41.25 x 31.25 in)

Signed, dated and inscribed L. Vigée le Brun/Roma 1791

Joseph Baillio, in the catalogue of the Vigée exhibition held at Fort Worth and in several articles, has remarked on the influence of Rubens on Mme Vigée Lebrun and the direct connection here with the portrait of the artist's wife, Helene Fourment in a Fur Coat (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) is immediately apparent. However, as Baillio has pointed out, Vigée could not have seen the painting in person and must have known it either from a print or copy. This is by no means the only one of Vigée's portraits that looks to Rubens but, in its informality and the immediately engaging attitude of the sitter, it is the furthest from the usual conventions of French portraiture. While emphasizing and sometimes idealizing her female sitters most attractive features was one of her particular accomplishments, we know from contemporary descriptions of Mlle Roland's charms that in this portrait the artist has not succumbed to any pressure to unduly flatter her subject. It may be noted that the artist apparently originally intended the portrait to be made in an oval form but, while painting, changed her mind and extended it over the whole canvas. The more open composition serves to emphasize the drama of the figure, standing, like several other Vigée portraits (notably the Portrait of the Duchess of Caderousse, in Kansas City, Portrait of a Woman, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts and Portrait of Mme Mole Raymond, Paris, Louvre), against a rich blue sky with a hint of a setting sun.