I tore through this book in less than an hour! I am a French Revolution era nerd and was a high school art nerd, so this was the intersection of passions of mine. Stylistically, I loved the look and feel of the book. The use of modern colors and page layouts with the art. There are so many paintings in this book that show the time and the "characters" in Elizabeth's story. The writing is engaging and does not feel like a dry history book. I think people who don't enjoy non-fiction could enjoy this one.

ARC from NetGalley.

I had seen her paintings but before reading this book I knew nothing of the artist. I was delighted to learn about her colorful life and groundbreaking art.

Elisabeth Vigee LeBrun wrote a memoir filled with the famous people she met as a portraitist, including Marie Antoinette and Catherine the Great.

Her story as an artist began as a child instructed by her father, who died when she was twelve. One of her father’s friends encouraged her to continue lessons and by her late teens, art had become the focus of her life. She married an artist and art collector under pressure from her mother, and to escape her stepfather.

Elisabeth painted over thirty portraits of Marie Antoinette and her family. One infamous painting showed Marie in her comfortable white chemise, which scandalized society. She had to paint another, with Marie is more traditional court dress.

Elisabeth was so busy by day painting, and socializing at night, that it impacted her health.

With the French Revolution, Elisabeth fled her homeland with her daughter, and was welcomed into society across Europe, painting portraits to earn her keep. She was an intrepid sightseer, hiking up Mt. Vesuvius to peer into the magma. Her husband, now her ex, finally arranged for her to safely return to France.

Elisabeth was eight-six when she passed, having painted 800 canvases.

Elisabeth’s paintings fill the book. She was masterful at details of costume, often portraying her subjects in the character of a mythological person. There is a freshness and idealism to her faces, the lips often parted as if beginning to smile, the eyes large and expressive.

Elisabeth captured the images of women who shaped politics and culture. I was delighted to learn her story.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley

Arc received through NetGalley.

The only complaint I have about this book is it's length, I wanted it to go on for way longer than it did.

The lay-out looks great to me and the writing reads easily.

I was thrilled to read more about artist Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. I have seen her self-portrait in person and was fascinated to learn more about her life and see more of her beautiful paintings. This book hits all the highlights – court painter to Marie Antoinette, fleeing for life, travelling Europe and painting Catherine the Great. It also touchingly explores her relationship with her only daughter, who travelled with her for many years. A great book for art lovers or historians and everyone else, too.


Thank you to NetGalley and Getty Publications for this DRC.
#Daring #NetGalley

A beautiful and well written YA/teen biography of the French artist Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. I am someone who plans trips to visit art and great museums. I have seen Le Brun’s works in multiple museums and countries, but really knew nothing of her life. I am fascinated by women artists who have talents that cannot be denied in their own lifetime. Le Brun was the daughter of an artist who encouraged her work. She was the first of only 15 women ever allowed into French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. She found a successful career before the French Revolution and painted multiple commissions of Marie Antoinette. She fled France and found work around Europe before finally returning to her country. I love that she lived a long 86 years and was a prolific artist. She even wrote her own memoir.

This book is wonderfully laid out. It follows her life and includes many of her paintings in color. It also includes side notes about the history of the time that impacts her life. I thought it was fascinating that she was sent to live with a wet nurse in the countryside rather than staying with her parents as a child in Paris. And what a common thing that was at the time. There are descriptions of each art work. I love that in the back of the book are photo credits so you know which museums have those works now. I have added smaller museums in the USA to my list of art places to visit.

A school teacher friend of mine told me that YA biographies are a great way to learn about people. This is a perfect example of giving a lot of good information, in only 112 pages. I was in France last October and realized I have photos of some of her paintings from my visits to the Louvre and Versailles. This was a treat for me to read and easy to recommend to teens and adult readers alike.

Fascinating look at the portrait painter Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun she is considered to be one of the best portrait painters in history.This was a beautiful book to read & to look out.Beautiful paintings gorgeous layout a gem of a book.#NetGalley #getty

I don’t usually read biographies because they tend to be very dense and hyper focused. But this book was very accessible-and not just for teens! Anyone who wants to learn more about the lives of women artists, the French Revolution, or the history of portraiture art will find themselves learning so much more. And it left me wanting more! There’s a little hint here and there about intriguing historical details like racial politics during the Revolution or the history of muslin fabric that left me excited to learn more.

Despite its lack of depth, the book is written in such a way that it leaves you feeling like you just watched these events happen before your eyes. There is no dialogue, but I felt I could hear Marie Antoinette and Elisabeth discussing which dress would be just right for the queen’s portrait. I’ve found this only happens in books that are written with passion and care, and I’m delighted this is one.

My one criticism, though, is that there is no criticism in the book. This especially struck me when the author was explaining that despite their intimate proximity throughout their travels, Elisabeth never mentioned her daughter’s governess in her memoirs. The author suggests that this is because their conversations were “boring….” never mind the fact they were traveling because Elisabeth, with her wealth and royal connections, was fleeing the guillotine. She lived in a class structure so elitist that it caused a violent revolution….maybe that’s a clue as to why she never gave the governess she employed the time of day.

I also found it funny when the author says Elisabeth wrote her memoirs because she wanted to leave “no part of her life up to interpretation.” Yet here we are, hundreds of years later, speculating about how she treated her servants. That’s not a criticism, just a funny irony.

What a delightful little book. I completed my MA in Art History focused on the self-portraiture of the artist so I am all for the exposure in popular nonfiction! I found the book to be well researched and thought out.

Design-wise, however, I really disliked the white pages with splotches of bright neon yellow. When you are dealing with such detailed artwork it just distracts from the work. It makes some sense for a popular audience but I would have been annoyed by it in any other art history book on the shelf so it is not singular to the topic.

This is a visually beautiful book that talks about the life of Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, one of the most famous and well-known female artists of her time. I enjoyed getting to know Elisabeth better through the glimpses into her life; despite being an informational text, this book read easily and felt like more of a story than a historical account of her life and art. I loved that there was a nice balance of text and artwork on each page, which seems attainable to readers. This book is definitely one that I will be purchasing for my classroom and incorporating within my creative writing curriculum--this is young adult nonfiction done well!

Thank you to NetGalley and Getty Publications for the early advanced digital copy of this book, and the chance to read and review it! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A really surprising short book.
This biography of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun was entertaining and more interesting than I expected in depicting the life and deeds of this prolific painter who really made a place for herself among European nobilities and royal families despite the limited place that women, and women painters above all, where given in her times.
The writing style is really compelling and fluid, and I really appreciated the author’s ability to combine the description of the many incredible events of Elisabeth’s life side by side with the her (but not only) paintings descriptions and some insights on important figures and events of her time.
I was also really pleased with the layout of the book itself, although I would have appreciated precise information on where her paintings are exhibited nowadays.
Definitely a good choice to spend some hour and be inspired.

A good, albeit short, introduction to Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, the woman behind some of the most popular paintings of Marie Antoinette. This delves more into her life after she fled the French Revolution, which is rare and much appreciated by this reader. I would have loved for a longer, more in depth biography from this author. The reproductions of the paintings in the book were lovely, even on a computer screen. Definitely would recommend to those who are curious about the artist and have little to no information about her prior to this book.

Women's stories matter — no matter how small or big their contribution to society is. Pomeroy's well-executed biography on Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun is an example of how women's achievements in the past were either buried or credited to their male relatives. In Daring, Pomeroy's talks about Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun with love and admiration.
An ingenue who took Paris by storm with her artistic talents and beauty, VIgee Le Brun story widely remains unknown to those outside of the art world. Discovered as a young talent, nourished by her great painters of her time and of her admission at the Royal Academy of Paint and Sculpture in Paris, Vigee Le Brun rich paintings survived even the French Revolution. Enjoying the patronage of the many royals across France, Italy, and Austria, Vigee Le Brun was one of the few women who enjoyed the freedom of expression and independent and often revolution thinking that might have deterred the lives of her peers.
Carefully crafted and brilliantly executed with reproductions of her paintings accompanied by side notes that provide historical context along with end notes, Pomeroy's narration on Vigee le Brun's extraordinary life, aided by her own published biography, is rich in its essence, providing historical input from a woman's perspective in the art world, a rarity since many women were either muses or subjects and often mute.
I would heartily recommend this book