Marie Antoinette and Her Children

Painted in 1787 by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, this official portrait had a clear political purpose: to win back public sympathy for Marie Antoinette after the Diamond Necklace affair. The queen is shown first as a mother rather than a distant sovereign, surrounded by her children and wearing very little jewellery. Her sober red velvet dress trimmed with sable and a plumed hat set the tone, and the absence of a necklace appears to be a deliberate choice. The younger boy, the future Louis XVII, sits on her lap, while her daughter leans affectionately on her arm and the dauphin stands to the left beside an empty cradle, a reminder of the younger daughter who died before the work was finished. The grouping recalls Renaissance images of the Holy Family, a model reportedly recommended by Jacques-Louis David, and the jewel box alludes to Cornelia, the Roman matron who called her children her jewels. Its public life was turbulent, and after its withdrawal in 1789 it became one of the emblematic works of the Versailles collection, widely familiar in France through school textbooks.

Painter

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Date

1787

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

271 × 210 cm

Museum

Musée de l'Histoire de France, Versailles

Genre

portrait

Depicts

bassinet, sitting, fur, crown prince, lace, boy, girl, bed

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