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The Exceptional Woman: Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun and the Cultural Politics of Art
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842) was an enormously successful painter, a favorite portraitist of Marie-Antoinette, and one of the few women accepted into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In accounts of her role as an artist, she was simultaneously flattered as a charming woman and vilified as monstrously unfeminine.
In The Exceptional Woman, Mary D. Sheriff uses Vigée-Lebrun's career to explore the contradictory position of "woman-artist" in the moral, philosophical, professional, and medical debates about women in eighteenth-century France. Paying particular attention to painted and textual self-portraits, Sheriff shows how Vigée-Lebrun's images and memoirs undermined the assumptions about "woman" and the strictures imposed on women.
Engaging ancien-régime philosophy, as well as modern feminism, psychoanalysis, literary theory, and art criticism, Sheriff's interpretations of Vigée-Lebrun's paintings challenge us to rethink the work and the world of this controversial woman artist.
In The Exceptional Woman, Mary D. Sheriff uses Vigée-Lebrun's career to explore the contradictory position of "woman-artist" in the moral, philosophical, professional, and medical debates about women in eighteenth-century France. Paying particular attention to painted and textual self-portraits, Sheriff shows how Vigée-Lebrun's images and memoirs undermined the assumptions about "woman" and the strictures imposed on women.
Engaging ancien-régime philosophy, as well as modern feminism, psychoanalysis, literary theory, and art criticism, Sheriff's interpretations of Vigée-Lebrun's paintings challenge us to rethink the work and the world of this controversial woman artist.
368 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 10, 2017
This book is full of very interesting and pertinent information on Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, but also on women artists in the 18th century. I loved reading it!
February 27, 2017
The beauty and charm of Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun’s art remains as highly regarded today as in her own time. In particular, her portraits of the Marie Antoinette are among the most iconic depictions of the unfortunate French queen. Despite the fame of her work, Vigée-Lebrun herself is as obscured and complex as any historical figure. Even in her own lifetime public opinion was divided regarding her place in French society as a woman and artist. In The Exceptional Woman, Mary D. Sheriff endeavors to explore Vigée-Lebrun as a historic figure, exceptional woman, in the context of her times, and through the artist’s own eyes.
Sheriff’s investigation into Vigée-Lebrun dives deeply into the historical record, examining letters, essays, records from the Salon and Académie, monarchist and revolutionary documents, art, and even Vigée-Lebrun’s own autobiography, Souvenirs, written toward the end of her life. Sherrif uses the tools of primary source analysis, historical records, psychoanalysis, art theory, and more to illuminate the artist, her art, and her world. Sheriff’s intention is not to follow Vigée-Lebrun from birth to grave, rather Sheriff sets out to uncover and understand Vigée-Lebrun in her context and perception of the artist in the eyes of others and herself.
The Exceptional Woman is not a narrative biography, and anyone seeking such a book will quickly find themselves overwhelmed and disappointed. Sheriff’s book requires attention and focus to follow the complex threads and theories she employs. Despite the strong academia centered material, the book is a fascinating exploration of identity and perception in the 18th century Europe. For those willing to dive in Sheriff’s The Exceptional Woman will not disappoint.
Sheriff’s investigation into Vigée-Lebrun dives deeply into the historical record, examining letters, essays, records from the Salon and Académie, monarchist and revolutionary documents, art, and even Vigée-Lebrun’s own autobiography, Souvenirs, written toward the end of her life. Sherrif uses the tools of primary source analysis, historical records, psychoanalysis, art theory, and more to illuminate the artist, her art, and her world. Sheriff’s intention is not to follow Vigée-Lebrun from birth to grave, rather Sheriff sets out to uncover and understand Vigée-Lebrun in her context and perception of the artist in the eyes of others and herself.
The Exceptional Woman is not a narrative biography, and anyone seeking such a book will quickly find themselves overwhelmed and disappointed. Sheriff’s book requires attention and focus to follow the complex threads and theories she employs. Despite the strong academia centered material, the book is a fascinating exploration of identity and perception in the 18th century Europe. For those willing to dive in Sheriff’s The Exceptional Woman will not disappoint.
June 24, 2022
One of the reviewers called this book challenging and she was very accurate. I really enjoyed the sections included from Elisabeth's memoirs but I had a hard time maintaining interest when it got too heavily into cultural politics.
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January 8, 2018This is actually a book I WOULD like to pick up again...it's just so dense and reminded me a bit too much of my time in grad school trying to understand literary theory. Ugh. I was never very good at it. But, Vigee Le Brun seems like a pretty astonishing woman, so I’d like to try again. Or maybe next time I will just read one of her biographies or her memoir.
February 14, 2008
Very disappointed with this book, thought it would be about the Life of Elizabeth Vigie-Lebrun (the most beautiful woman of the 18th century) and a very talented artist. But, this book was more about the Cultural Politics of Art.
March 21, 2008
Theoretical but daring for art history.
March 25, 2011
Mary Sheriff is my scholarly hero.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews