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Vigee Le Brun: Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (One Painting, One Story)
Series: One Painting, One Story
Brief Description
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is one of the National Gallery's most captivating paintings. Looking at us directly and holding the tools of her profession, the painter presents herself as an elegant society lady as well as an accomplished...
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Vigee Le Brun: Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (One Painting, One Story)
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This beautifully illustrated book in the National Gallery’s new One Painting, One Story series explores the making and meaning of Vigée Le Brun’s Self Portrait in a Straw Hat.
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Description
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is one of the National Gallery's most captivating paintings. Looking at us directly and holding the tools of her profession, the painter presents herself as an elegant society lady as well as an accomplished professional artist. The pose was modelled on Rubens's Portrait of Susanna Lunden (?), with whom Vigée Le Brun was making an explicit connection.
Vigée Le Brun's life spanned a tumultuous period of French history. Lucy Davies examines the artist's rise to become one of the most successful society portraitists of her age, patronised by Queen Marie-Antoinette. After fleeing the French Revolution in 1789, Vigée Le Brun travelled around Europe and Russia, eventually returning to a transformed Paris.
Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press
Series: One Painting, One Story
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Seurat: Bathers at Asnieres (One Painting, One Story)
Although beloved today, Georges Seurat's Bathers at Asnières was rejected from the Salon exhibition to which it was first submitted. The work, painted when the artist was only 24 years old, was intended to make a statement. Meticulously planned, its detailed composition starkly contrasts with the spontaneity sought by Seurat's Impressionist peers. The scene is suffused with bright, hazy sunlight...Paperback$3099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Vigee Le Brun: Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (One Painting, One Story)
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is one of the National Gallery's most captivating paintings. Looking at us directly and holding the tools of her profession, the painter presents herself as an elegant society lady as well as an accomplished professional artist. The pose was modelled on Rubens's Portrait of Susanna Lunden (?), with...Paperback$3099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
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In 1893, Claude Monet, a keen gardener, bought a plot of land next to his house in Giverny, where he wanted to create a water garden 'both for the pleasure of the eye and for the purpose of having subjects to paint'. He filled the pond with water lilies and built a bridge at one end, inspired by examples he...Paperback$3099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781857097481
Publisher: National Gallery Company Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 23 September 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: National Gallery Company Ltd
Illustration: 30 colour Illust
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 159.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 64
About the Author
Lucy Davies is a journalist and the author of several books on art, including An Opinionated Guide to Women Painters and Mabel Nicholson.
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