Editing Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (section)

==== Prussia ====
[[File:Danae.jpg|left|thumb|''[[Danaë]]'', after [[Danaë (Titian paintings)|Titian]]]]
[[File:Marie_Louise_Elisabeth_Vig%C3%A9e-Lebrun_001.jpg|thumb|170px|''[[Germaine de Staël|Madame de Staël]] as Corinne at Cape Miseno'', 1807–1809, [[Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva)]].]]

After her departure from Saint Petersburg, Vigée Le Brun travelled – with some difficulty – through [[Prussia]], visiting [[Berlin]] after an exhausting journey. The [[Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Queen of Prussia]] invited Vigée Le Brun to [[Potsdam]] to meet her; the Queen then commissioned a portrait of herself. The Queen invited the artist to reside in the Potsdam palace until she finished her portrait, but Vigée Le Brun, not wishing to intrude on the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, chose to reside in a nearby hotel, where her stay was uncomfortable.

The pair soon became friends. During a conversation, Vigée Le Brun complemented the Queen on her bracelets with an antique design, which the Queen then took off and put around Vigée Le Brun's arms. Vigée Le Brun considered this gift one of her most valued possessions for the rest of her life and wore it almost everywhere. At the Queen's urging, Vigée Le Brun visited the Queen's [[Pfaueninsel|Peacock Island]], where the artist enjoyed the countryside.

Aside from two pastel portraits commissioned by the Queen, Vigée Le Brun also painted other pastel portraits of [[Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1772–1806)|Prince Ferdinand's]] family.

During her stay in Berlin, she met with the [[Pierre de Ruel, marquis de Beurnonville|General Plenipotentiary Bournonville]], hoping to procure a passport to return to France. The general encouraged Vigée Le Brun to return and assured her that order and safety had been restored. Her brother and husband had already struck her name from the list of émigrés with ease and had her French status restored. Shortly before her departure from Berlin, the General Director of [[Prussian Academy of Arts|the Academy of Painting]] visited her, bringing her the diploma for her admission to that academy.<ref name="Memoirs" /> After her departure from Berlin, she visited [[Dresden]] and painted several copies of Emperor Alexander, which she had promised earlier, and also visited Brunswick where she resided for six days with the Rivière family, and was sought out by the [[Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick]] who wished to make her acquaintance. She also passed through [[Weimar]] and [[Frankfurt]] on her way.