Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Marie Antoinette in Court Dress
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun French
Not on view
In 1777, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria wrote to her daughter Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) asking for a portrait. Vigée Le Brun received the commission, her first from the queen. She remembered that the queen "walked better than any other woman in France, holding her head very high with a majesty that singled her out in the midst of the entire court."