Self-portrait with Her Daughter, Julie
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1786
This double portrait shows Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun seated with her daughter Julie on her lap, both turned toward the viewer. The composition is kept in the immediate foreground, with no background to pull attention away, so the focus falls on the embrace: the painter holds her daughter firmly, and her hands, clearly visible, emphasise that physical closeness. The picture reads more as an image of maternal tenderness than as a straightforward likeness.
One of the details most often discussed is the artist's smile, which shows her teeth. According to the historian Colin Jones, displaying teeth when smiling was unusual in elite portraiture of the period, and improvements in dentistry may have turned good teeth into a marker of social status. A seemingly spontaneous expression thus carries a social dimension as well.
The work is held in the Louvre and combines the intimacy of a family subject with the self-presentation of an established portraitist who shows herself in a moment of affection.
- Painter
- Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
- Date
- 1786
- Medium
- oil paint, panel
- Dimensions
- 105 × 84 cm
- Museum
- Louvre Museum, Paris
- Genre
- self-portrait, double portrait
- Depicts
- painter, sitting, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, maternal bond, girl, hug, Julie Le Brun, woman
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