During 18th and early 19th century France, many women painters reached imposing peaks of artistic achievement and professional success. Women ranked among the most sought-after artists in Paris in the 1780’s despite the fact that there was a cap on the amount of women admitted to France’s Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and that there were restrictions that made it so women couldn’t attend the life drawing classes that were attended by young men. One out of the few female members that were a part of the académie was Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. She regularly exhibited her work at Salons. (1) For many women artists during this time, royal women were the most important patrons. Marie Antoinette played a huge role in the admission of Vigée Le Brun on May 31, 1783, who was one of Marie’s favorite portraitists. The onset of the French Revolution made difficult situations for Le Brun. Because of Le Brun’s association with the queen, she was required to leave France in 1789. In 1783, Vigée Le Brun created the painting Marie Antoinette en Chemise, which she later re-created to Marie Antoinette with a Rose within the same year following some controversy. In the painting of Marie Antoinette en Chemise, Marie is painted in a loose garment, with a sash wrapped around her waist fastened into a bow; she wears a hat with ribbon and feather for decoration, which covers her undone hair. She holds a rose in her left hand, while her right is delicately holding a ribbon. Fig. 1. Marie Antoinette en Chemise, Vigée Le Brun, 1783, Oil on canvas To understand the controversy of Marie Antoinette en Chemise, one must understand what exactly a chemise is. Marie Antoinette introduced a chemise a la reine, or gaulle, and it is an incredibly light and simple “blouse dress” compared to the highly structured garments worn by the French court and the society. It consisted of layers of thin muslin that loosely draped around the body. It was belted with a sash around the waist. Vigée Le Brun’s portrait of the queen in her new clothes started a scandal. This helped solidify the people’s hatred for Marie Antoinette. Before this painting emerged to the public, Marie Antoinette was already committing a few rebellious acts. These included abolishing the morning toilette, allowing a commoner into her inner circle, and escaping to the Petit Trianon. All of these acts caused anger and suspicion with the aristocracy. The portrait that Marie-Antoinette had Vigée Le Brun paint of herself was another one of her rebellious acts. The portrait removed all aspects of the king and portrayed Marie Antoinette as her own person, an individual from her role as wife to the reigning monarch. The simple and unstructured nature of the chemise a la reine symbolizes Marie Antoinette’s hatred for the structure and ritual of court life at Versailles. (2) The people viewed this portrait of their queen were shocked and outraged that the queen was being portrayed in a chemise, a basic undergarment that all women wore, and thought she was painted, essentially, in her underwear; she was not dressed befitted to her rank. The chemise garment also represented an economical threat; it was made from muslin that was imported from England. The French silk industry reported substantial financial loss when the chemise a la reine caught on. According to the public, the chemise a la reine also represented the Queen’s rebellion against traditional political and gender roles. Marie Antoinette took power in herself, which represented a political threat and was an insult to the power of the monarchy. (3) Vigée Le Brun quickly withdrew the painting of Marie Antoinette and re-created a second portrait to take its place. She repeated the pose of the first painting, however, this time she appropriately dressed the Queen in a classic blue-grey silk dress. Fig. 2. Marie Antoinette with a Rose, Vigée Le Brun, 1783, Oil on canvas The portrait of Marie Antoinette en Chemise brought to mind another controversial painting made by Diego Velázquez. This painting is titled Rokeby Venus (also known as the toilet of Venus) and is Velázquez’s only surviving nude painting. This work depicts the goddess Venus in a sensual pose. She is lying on a bed with her back to the viewer and looking into a mirror held by her son Cupid. When this work was first inventoried, it was described as a nude woman, probably owning to its controversial nature. (4) Through Venus’ reflection in the mirror, she looks out at the viewer. Her reflection, however, is blurry, revealing only an unclear reflection of her characteristics. Fig. 3. Rokeby Venus, Diego Velázquez, c. 1647-51, National Gallery, London In 1914 the painting was attacked by a woman by the name of Mary Richardson. She left seven slashes on the painting with a meat cleaver. Most of the damage was in the area between Venus’ shoulders. The initial thought to her provoked attack was by the arrest of a fellow companion. Later in 1952 when she was interviewed, she admitted to destroying the picture because she didn’t like the way male visitors stared at it all day long. (5) This act was seen to represent the feminist perception towards female nudes and showed a stereotypical image of feminism. Fig. 4. Damage sustained in the attack by Mary Richardson I related these two paintings because they both sparked controversy about what the women in the painting were wearing, whether that was a chemise or nothing at all. The public responded negatively to both of these paintings, Le Brun’s right off and Velázquez’s a few hundred years later. 1. Auricchio, Author: Laura. "Eighteenth-Century Women Painters in France | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2017. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/18wa/hd_18wa.htm>. 2. Hall, Kelly. "Impropriety, Informality and Intimacy in Vigée Le Brun’s Marie Antoinette En Chemise." N.p., n.d. Web. May 2017. <http://digitalcommons.providence.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1047&context=art_journal>. 3. "THE CHEMISE A LA REINE." Http://www.thefashionhistorian.com/2012/03/chemise-la-reine.html. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2017. <http://www.thefashionhistorian.com/2012/03/chemise-la-reine.html>. 4. "Rokeby Venus." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 09 May 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rokeby_Venus>. 5. Agrawal, Sonal. "Top 10 Controversial Paintings in Art History." Top 10 Outstanding List. N.p., 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 May 2017. <http://www.elist10.com/top-10-controversial-paintings-art-history/>.
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