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Marie Antoinette with a Rose
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun · Rococo & Neoclassicism
- Artist
- Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842)
- Date
- 1783
- Dimensions
- 113 x 87 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France
This portrait shows Queen Marie Antoinette of France in a blue-grey silk dress trimmed with lace, her powdered hair dressed with feathers and pearls, holding a pink rose. Behind her lies a soft, park-like background.
A closer look
Vigée Le Brun first painted the queen in a simple white muslin 'chemise' dress. When it was shown at the Salon of 1783, the public was scandalised to see the queen of France apparently in her underwear, and the painting had to be withdrawn. The artist quickly painted this new version, in the same pose, but with a formal silk gown appropriate to royal dignity. The rose, symbol of grace and of the queen's Austrian Habsburg heritage, and her gentle expression present her as approachable and charming, at a time when her popularity was already in decline.
