At the age of 15, Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun was earning enough money from her portrait painting to support herself, her widowed mother and her younger brother.
Two years later she married Pierre Lebrun, an art dealer who.
Trained by her father, the minor portraitist Louis Vigee, she joined Pariss Academy of Saint Luke at 19.
She became Marie Antoinettes favorite painter
European aristocrats, actors and writers were also her patrons; and she was elected a member of the art academies in 10 cities.
At the age of 15, Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun was earning enough money from her portrait painting to support herself, her widowed mother and her younger brother