VIGEE, MARIE LOUISE ELIZABETH. Member of the French Academy.  Born in Paris in 1755.  That happy writer and learned critic, M. Charles Blanc, begins his account of her thus:  “All the fairies gathered about the cradle of Elizabeth Vigee, as for the birth of a little princess in the kingdom of art.  One gave her beauty, another genius; the fairy Gracious offered her a pencil and a palette.  The fairy of marriage, who had not been summoned, told her, it is true, that she should wed M. Le Brun, the expert in pictures—­but for her consolation the fairy of travellers promised her that she should bear from court to court, from academy to academy, from Paris to Petersburg, and from Rome to London, her gayety, her talent, and her easel—­before which all the sovereigns of Europe and all those whom genius had crowned should place themselves as subjects for her brush.”

[Illustration:  A FRENCH PRINCE

MARIE VIGEE LE BRUN]

It is difficult to write of Madame Le Brun in outline because her life was so interesting in detail.  Though she had many sorrows, there is a halo of romance and a brilliancy of atmosphere about her which marks her as a prominent woman of her day, and her autobiography is charming—­it is so alive that one forgets that she is not present, telling her story!

The father of this gifted daughter was an artist of moderate ability and made portraits in pastel, which Elizabeth, in her “Souvenirs,” speaks of as good and thinks some of them worthy of comparison with those of the famous Latour.  M. Vigee was an agreeable man with much vivacity of manner.  His friends were numerous and he was able to present his daughter to people whose acquaintance was of value to her.  She was but twelve years old at the time of his death, and he had already so encouraged her talents as to make her future comparatively easy for her.

Elizabeth passed five years of her childhood in a convent, where she constantly busied herself in sketching everything that she saw.  She tells of her intense pleasure in the use of her pencil, and says that her passion for painting was innate and never grew less, but increased in charm as she grew older.  She claimed that it was a source of perpetual youth, and that she owed to it her acquaintance and friendship with the most delightful men and women of Europe.

While still a young girl, Mlle. Vigee studied under Briard, Doyen, and Greuze, but Joseph Vernet advised her to study the works of Italian and Flemish masters, and, above all, to study Nature for herself—­to follow no school or system.  To this advice Mme. Le Brun attributed her success.

When sixteen years old she presented two portraits to the French Academy, and was thus early brought to public notice.

When twenty-one she married M. Le Brun, of whom she speaks discreetly in her story of her life, but it was well known that he was of dissipated habits and did not hesitate to spend all that his wife could earn.  When she left France, thirteen years after her marriage, she had not so much as twenty francs, although she had earned a million!