Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
Comtesse de la Châtre (Marie Charlotte Louise Perrette Aglaé Bontemps, 1762–1848)
1789
Painted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1789 — the year the Revolution broke out — 'The Comtesse de La Châtre' portrays the young French noblewoman seated in a simple, elegant muslin dress, a book in her lap. Vigée Le Brun, Marie Antoinette's favoured portraitist, caught the intimate, unpowdered taste that had swept France's aristocracy in the late 1780s. The canvas is a standout of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 18th-century French portrait collection.
Exhibition Venue
Image source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art