Johann Gotthard von Müller, engraver

Staring directly at the viewer, her eyes shadowed by a wide-brimmed straw hat, Vigée-Lebrun portrays herself as a confident, youthful painter. She proudly displays a palette and brushes: tools of her trade and symbols of her professional identity. This lively engraving is based on a self-portrait Vigée-Lebrun painted in 1782, in which she made reference to The Straw Hat, a painting by Peter Paul Rubens she had seen in Antwerp. One of only two female members of the Royal Academy at that time, Vigée-Lebrun was forced to flee France during the French Revolution due her connection to her major patron, Queen Marie Antoinette. Returning to France from exile 12 years later, she continued a successful career as a portraitist of the new social and intellectual elites.