Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun could paint anyone so they looked full of character, and vibrantly alive. So Europe’s aristocrats clamored for her brush. But when the French Revolution toppled thrones and chopped off heads, she had to run for her life. For 12 years across Europe, she chased her lost Eden. Can you ever get back to the Good Old Days?
Our guest is Judith Lissauer Cromwell, author of Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Portrait of an Artist 1755-1842.
Find our list of all museums holding paintings by Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun here.
National Gallery, London
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Versailles
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
After a successful corporate career, Judith Lissauer Cromwell returned to academia as an independent historian. Experience as a magna cum laude graduate of Smith College, holder of a doctorate in modern European history with academic distinction from New York University, veteran of corporate America, mother and grandmother, enriches Judith’s perspective. She is the author of, Dorothea Lieven; A Russian Princess in London and Paris 1785-1857, the tale of a remarkable female who changed the course of history. Florence Nightingale, Feminist, recounting Florence’s riveting story from a post-feminist perspective, and Good Queen Anne; Appraising the Life and Reign of the Last Stuart Monarch, the first nuanced biography of a wise and popular ruler undeservedly either maligned or ignored by posterity.
Judith entered the international world of Wall Street in 1973 as one of its few female executives. She established a global firm’s company-wide information center, then founded the firm’s market research department where she organized, executed, and presented strategic planning projects. She not only thrived in the clubby male world of Wall Street, but also, as a single working parent, raised two children. Judith is herself the daughter of a pioneering female physician, one of a handful admitted to the staff of New York Hospital in the early 1950s. Judith Cromwell lives in New York surrounded by her children and grand-children.
Music featured in this episode includes:
Haydn’s Symphony 85 (famed as Marie Antoinette’s favorite!) recorded by Ars Lyrica Houston
J.S. Bach C Major Prelude and Brandenburg Concerto recorded by Kevin MacLeod
Apolcalyptic Echoes, Devil’s Organ, and Frightmare by Jimena Contreras
Run Until Your Wings Grow by Late Night Feeler
Catherine the Great’s Russian Anthem
Solo Cello Passion by Doug Maxwell
Alpine Bierhalle by Aaron Kenny
No. 8 Requiem by Esther Abrami
Length of Light by Amulets
Elegy by Wayne Jones
Guillotine soundscape by Jorgemaca
Your purchases help support the podcast!
