Vigée Le Brun At The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Comtesse de La Châtre - 1789
oil on canvas, 45" x 34 1/2"
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Despite the political situation that forced Vigee Le Brun left Paris in October 1789, she completed 37 paintings that year. This portrait of Marie Charlotte Louise Perrette Aglae Bontemps (1762-1848) appears on her list as "Madame de la Chartre. The 27 year old sitter had married Claude Louis, Comte de la Chartre, in 1778. Her father was "premier Valet de chambre" to Louis XV. Her uncle was the financier Beaujon, whom Vigee Le Brun also painted. Marie Charlotte later divorced her first husband and married Francois Annail de Jaucourt (1757-1852).

Additional information on Comtesse de La Châtre from the 1982 Kimbell Exhibition
The Museum Information Plate

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
French, 1755-1842

Comtesse de la Chatre (Marie Charlotte Louise Perrette Aglae Bontemps, 1762-1848)

Oil on Canvas

When this portrait was painted in 1789, the sitter, daughter of Louis XV's premier valet de chambre, was the wife of the comte de le Chatre. She later married Francois Annail de Jaucourt which accounts for the traditional title of the painting as the marquise de Jaucourt. For daily wear and for portraits, Vigée Le Brun favored white muslin dresses in this style for what she saw as their timeless, classical simplicity.

Gift of Jessie Woolworth Donahue, 1954
54.182

[French Gallery: View 1][French Gallery: View 2][The French Room]
[Vigée Le Brun at the MET Page][Vigée Le Brun's Home Page]