Le Brun’s self portrait can be found outside Upstairs Downstairs on Church Street
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
Oil on canvas 97.8 × 70.5 cm
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat is a signed copy by the artist of a very popular self portrait that she painted in 1782 and which is now in the collection of the baronne Edmond de Rothschild. The pose is deliberately modelled on Rubens’s Portrait of Susanna Lunden (?) (also in the National Gallery’s collection), which was formerly, but incorrectly, known as Le Chapeau de Paille (The Straw Hat).
Read more at NationalGallery.org.uk
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, the daughter of a minor painter, Louis Vigée, was born and brought up in Paris. She became a member of the Académie de St-Luc in 1774 and of the French Academy in 1783. She was a highly fashionable portrait painter, patronised particularly by Queen Marie Antoinette. Between 1789 and 1805 she travelled in Europe and visited Russia.