Portrait of the Comte de Vaudreuil (Le Brun)

Portrait of the Comte de Vaudreuil
Artist	Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Year	1784
Type	Oil on canvas, portrait painting
Dimensions	52 cm × 39.3 cm (20 in × 15.5 in)
Location	Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

Portrait of the Comte de Vaudreuil is a 1784 portrait painting by the French artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.[1] It depicts the French aristocrat, soldier and courtier Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil. Born in the colony of Saint-Domingue where his father was governor, Vaudreuil was a prominent figure at the court of Louis XVI. He was rumoured to be the lover of the Duchess of Polignac, a favourite of Marie Antoinette.[2]

Today the painting is in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, having been gifted to it in 1949.[3] Vaudreuil had earlier sat for the 1758 Portrait of the Comte de Vaudreuil by François-Hubert Drouais, now in the National Gallery in London.[4]

References

1. May p.52
2. Baillio & Baetjer p.97
3. https://vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-8049467/
4. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/francois-hubert-drouais-the-comte-de-vaudreuil

Bibliography

• Baillio, Joseph & Baetjer, Katharine & Lang, Paul. Vigée Le Brun. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016.
• Helm, W.H. Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun. Parkstone International, 2018.
• May, Gita. Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun: The Odyssey of an Artist in an Age of Revolution. Yale University Press, 2008.