Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Self-Portrait
Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun French
Not on view
In Florence, Vigée Le Brun admired the famous collection of artists’ self-portraits in the Corridoio Vasariano at the Uffizi. Asked to add her own image, she later wrote: “I painted myself with a palette in hand, in front of a canvas on which I am drawing the queen in white chalk.” Both her subject and her elegant black silk gown were intended to evoke the power and prestige of her position as a painter to the king of France. The scarlet sash adds a bold touch.