VIGÉE-LEBRUN, Élisabeth: Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat

Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun painted this charming self-portrait during the height of her career as one of 18th-century Europe's most sought-after portraitists, capturing herself with the casual elegance and directness of gaze that made her paintings so compelling. The informal straw hat and the artist's frank, engaging expression challenge traditional notions of feminine portraiture, presenting creative ambition as something natural and approachable rather than remote or austere. Working in the refined French Rococo tradition yet infusing it with a new sense of intimacy, Vigée-Lebrun uses this image to assert her identity not as a fashionable beauty, but as a skilled professional artist worthy of serious consideration.