Archive, Fine Art, Old Masters

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (France, 1755–1842)
Marie-Antoinette en chemise ou en gaulle (Marie Antoinette in a Chemise Dress)
oil on canvas
92.7 x 73.1 cm (36 1/2 x 28 3/4 in.)
Painted in 1783

Collection of National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

At the Salon of 1783, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Marie-Antoinette's official portraitist and confidante, presented a portrait of the queen in a gown known as "en gaulle". Initiated by Rose Bertin, Marie-Antoinette's fashion minister, this gown is made of white cotton muslin, silk or gauze. Highly décolleté and tight around the waist, it's an interior gown that, enhanced

a straw hat and a bouquet of flowers on the picture, recalls the return to nature of the queen and her entourage at Petit Trianon or the Queen's Hamlet.

But the painting caused a scandal: it presented the sovereign too simply, too intimately. A queen in a chemise (meaning a nightgown)! What's more, she's not wearing any jewelry! Already disliked by many, the Austrian was the subject of fierce criticism.

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (France, 1755–1842)
Marie-Antoinette dit “à la Rose” (Marie-Antoinette with a Rose)
oil on canvas
116.8 × 88.9 cm (46.0 × 35.0 in)
Painted in 1783

Collection of Palace of Versailles, Versailles

But Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun painted a second portrait. The queen's pose was identical, as was the bouquet, but this time she wore a French-style gown, fitted over a basket that slimmed her waist. The gown is in brilliant blue-gray satin, adorned with fine lace and a bow on the chest.

In addition, the sovereign wears a double strand of pearls around her neck, and her hairstyle is more elaborate.

The background, too, has changed, symbolizing the queen's taste for nature as it depicts gardens, probably those of the Petit Trianon or the Hameau de la Reine.

In 6 years, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun painted 30 portraits of the Queen! And it was thanks to the intervention of this prestigious friend that she was able to enter the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, even though her status as a merchant's wife should have barred her entry...