mademoiselle brongniart

I only had about an hour at The National Gallery the other day. I’ll have to go back because I did not do the museum justice. I picked the most famous paintings and went directly to them – so touristy of me! As I was rushing between rooms I was stopped in my tracks at this Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. In the turbulent summer of 1789 at the beginning of the French Revolution, Le Brun took refuge in the Brongniart home. I thought how poignant it was for Le Brun to have painted a child with her knitting, perhaps as a way to counter balance the turbulence and horror swirling around her at that time, perhaps as a way to repay the girls parents for their generosity. In any case, I thought it was one if the most personally significant paintings I saw all day. Absolutely lovely.