Julie Le Brun (1780–1819) Looking in a Mirror

Arguably the most famous of Marie-Antoinette’s court painters, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted this portrait of her young daughter, Julie, holding a mirror. Julie appears both in profile and looking back at her mother in her reflection in the mirror. The painting was featured in the Salon of 1787 in Paris. Le Brun frequently painted scenes of mothers and children, both herself with Julie and her noble sitters, including Marie-Antoinettte, with their own children. The paintings tend to idealize mothers as sentimental figures frolicking in halcyon settings with their young children. This seems to reflect the growing interest at the time in the role of mothers in the education of small children, as advocated by Enlightenment writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Painting