Most women think that balancing motherhood and professional career is a modern-day challenge, but that’s not entirely true.
Meditation on this topic dates back to classical antiquity. Prominent women such as Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi brothers) are recorded as role models of integrity. People like Livia (wife of Emperor Augustus) are remembered for their intrigues and betrayals on behalf of their children. French portraitist Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842) took this to a new level by making her motherhood central to her professional identity as an artist. I did.
For all of us trying to achieve that elusive “life-work balance,” it may be comforting to understand that it was just as much of a challenge in the 18th century as it is today.
Vigée-Leblanc was a pioneering woman in a field historically dominated by men. However, some female artists began to break out during the Renaissance, and by the French Enlightenment, many had become international celebrities.
Vigée-Lebrun’s father, Louis Vigée, was also a portrait painter, allowing her to receive technical artistic training that was denied to many women at the time. He died when she was young, but she records in her memoir, her “her souvenir”:Louis was the first to recognize her skills and declare her future as an artist. As she grew up, Vigée-Leblanc developed a close relationship with Marie Antoinette, and through her official portraits with her children, which were supposed to give an informal and humanizing impression to the king, Vigée-Leblanc cultivated the unpopular queen’s public image. I tried to recover.
Unfortunately for Marie Antoinette, who was guillotined during the French Revolution, it would have taken more than a portrait to save the monarchy. However, Vige-Le Blanc survived and also became a successful artist, beginning to specialize in his self-portraits in order to shape his own image.
In our modern selfie-obsessed world, it may come as a surprise that selfies themselves are a relatively recent phenomenon, with origins dating back to 16th century Europe. In fact, there is no equivalent in the ancient world or in any other tradition. However, for the West it was established as a genre of interest not only to the artists themselves, but also to collectors.
Vigée-Lebrun married Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun (1748-1813), a collector and art dealer. He was related to Louis XIV’s favorite painter, Charles Blanc. So the mere addition of her husband’s surname would have added to Louise’s artistic pedigree. The couple ended up on opposite sides of the Rally Revolution and their marriage ended in divorce in 1794, but Jeanne and Julie had one child, Louise Leblanc (1780-1819). .
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As Jeanne grew up, Vigée-Le Brun took self-portraits of her and her daughter embracing. The photographs of the two together are designed to emotionally tug at the viewer’s heartstrings, and at the same time demonstrate the skill of the artist who participated in and recorded the tender and intimate scenes between the two of them. Designed to impress. And children.
For the first time, the artist’s role as a mother became the subject of important fine oil paintings sold to aristocratic collectors in fashionable galleries, rather than those of children’s rooms or boudoirs. The “brunette” who was known as Jeanne continued to live with her mother after her parents’ divorce and, at least according to her mother’s memoirs, she created her own art. showed his talent. Although Louise and Jeanne’s relationship was not always smooth sailing, their achievement in turning her motherhood, and especially her daughter’s sexuality, into a central pillar of her artistic identity was groundbreaking.
As a mother and professional, I have always found it fascinating to watch Vigée-LeBrun navigate the treacherous waters of her career, turbulent political events, and motherhood in a world that is less welcoming to women. . Understanding that it was as much a challenge in the 18th century as it is in the 21st for all of us striving to achieve that elusive “life-work balance”, however imperfectly. That can be a comfort.
Vigée-Le Brun’s example of a mother forming her own identity from both parent and child provides great inspiration this Mother’s Day. She established that having children does not have to negate professional success, but can in fact be an important part of it. In that spirit of hers, I honor my mother who inspired me to take on both motherhood and a career, and who gave me more than I could ever give them. I would like to thank the children who returned it.
