'Julie Le Brun as Flora' (1789) by Vigée Le Brun

Erin Wilson, Assistant Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg (https://mfastpete.org/) talks about Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun and her painting "Julie Le Brun as Flora".

Vigée-LeBrun portrayed many of France’s aristocracy, including Queen Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), during the last years of the monarchy. Her work, generally characterized by sartorial simplicity and a sense of naturalism, exhibits a refined elegance. As a staunch royalist, Vigée Le Brun fled the country in 1789. It would be over a decade before she could safely return.

Vigée Le Brun used her time in exile to promote her work and establish a new clientele. She traveled throughout Europe, eventually settling in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where she lived from 1795 to 1801. Painted in 1799, Julie LeBrun as Flora is a sophisticated allusion to Roman antiquity. It depicts the artist’s daughter, Julie LeBrun (1780–1819), in the guise of the goddess of flowers. This is the last known composition that she painted of her daughter. Shortly after its completion, Julie—who was often the subject of her mother’s portraits—married a man of whom her mother disapproved, permanently straining their relationship.