THE IMAGE OF MOTHER WITH CHILD IN ART OF VIGEE LE BRUN DURING HER STAY IN RUSSIA

Abstract

The object of the article is considering female portraits by Vigée Le Brun, presenting the mother with child and created in Russia. That group of masterpieces constitutes an important phenomenon for the understanding of national tradition in a family portrait – a type of genre which markedly develops just at the turn of 18th–19th centuries with active participation of foreign painters. A close examination of portraits contributes to the identification of specific features which included the thoroughness of interior’s depiction, the neutrality of portrait characteristic and the moderation in the display of maternal feelings. Those features give an opportunity not only to determine an artistic expression of family portrait in the work of Vigee Le Brun, but also to understand a value of masterpieces for the client. For Russian women of the epoch the presentation of Self with a child became a type of revealing portrait which emphasized her image of mother and assumed the exaltation of a model by combining methods of ceremonial and chamber picture.