Editing Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (section)

==== Daughter Julie ====
[[File:Madame Vigee-Lebrun and her daughter, Jeanne Lucia (Julie).jpg|thumb|252x252px|''Self-portrait with her Daughter Julie'', 1786, [[Louvre Museum]]]]

After two years of marriage, Vigée Le Brun became pregnant, and on 12 February 1780, she gave birth to a daughter, [[Julie Le Brun|Jeanne Lucie Louise]], whom she called Julie and nicknamed "Brunette".<ref name=Memoirs/> In 1784, she gave birth to a second child who died in infancy.<ref name="ExhCat" />{{Efn|Le Brun does not mention this child anywhere in her memoirs.}}

In 1781, she and her husband toured [[Flanders]], [[Brussels]] and the [[Netherlands]], where seeing the works of the Flemish masters inspired her to try new techniques. Her ''[[Self-portrait in a Straw Hat]]'' (1782) was a "free imitation" of Rubens's ''[[Portrait of Susanna Lunden|Le Chapeau de Paille]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The National Gallery Companion Guide |edition=rev. |last=Langmuir |first=Erika |publisher=National Gallery Publications Ltd |location=London |date=1997 |pages=328–329}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/elisabeth-louise-vigee-le-brun-self-portrait-in-a-straw-hat |title=Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat |website=National Gallery |access-date=10 March 2018}}</ref> Dutch and Flemish influences have also been noted in ''The Comte d'Espagnac'' (1786) and ''Madame Perregaux'' (1789).<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Wallace Collection's Pictures: A Complete Catalogue |author1-last=Duffy |author1-first=Stephen |author2-last=Hedley |author2-first=Jo |publisher=Unicorn Press and Lindsay Fine Art Ltd |location=London |date=2004 |pages=460–462}}</ref>

In yet another of the series of scandals that marked her early career, her 1785 portrait of [[Louis XVI]]'s [[Controller-General of Finances|minister of finance]], [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne]], was the target of a public scandal after it was exhibited in the [[Salon (Paris)|Salon of 1785]]. Rumors circulated that the minister had paid the artist a very large sum of money, while other rumors circulated that she had had an affair with de Calonne. The famous [[Paris Opera]] soprano [[Sophie Arnould]] commented on the portrait "Madame Le Brun had cut off his legs so he could not escape". More rumors and scandals followed soon after as, to the painter's dismay, M. Le Brun began building a mansion on the Rue de-Gros-Chenet, with the public claiming that de Calonne was financing the new home - although her husband did not finish constructing the house until 1801, shortly before her return to France after her long exile. She was also rumored to have had another affair, with [[Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil]], who was one of her most devoted patrons. Their correspondence published later strongly affirmed the status of this affair. These rumors spiraled into an extensive defamation campaign targeting the painter throughout 1785.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

In 1787, she caused a minor public scandal when her ''Self-portrait with her Daughter Julie'' was exhibited at that year's Salon showing her [[smile#Cultural differences|smiling]] and open-mouthed, which was in direct contravention of traditional painting conventions going back to antiquity. The court gossip-sheet ''[[Mémoires secrets]]'' commented: "An affectation which artists, art-lovers and persons of taste have been united in condemning, and which finds no precedent among the Ancients, is that in smiling, [Madame Vigée LeBrun] shows her teeth."<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Great Nation: France from Louis XIV to Napoleon |last=Jones |first=Colin |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |date=2003 |page=364 |isbn=9780140130935}}</ref> In light of this and her other ''Self-portrait with her Daughter Julie'' (1789), [[Simone de Beauvoir]] dismissed Vigée Le Brun as narcissistic in ''[[The Second Sex]]'' (1949): "Madame Vigée-Lebrun never wearied of putting her smiling maternity on her canvases."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Extracts from The Second Sex |last=Beauvoir |first=Simone de |translator=Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier |publisher=Vintage |date=2009}}</ref>

In 1788, Vigée Le Brun was impressed with the faces of the [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysorean]] ambassadors of [[Tipu Sultan|Tipu-Sultan]], and solicited their approval to take their portraits. The ambassador responded by saying he would only agree if the request came from the King, which Vigée Le Brun procured, and she proceeded to paint the [[Portrait of Muhammad Dervish Khan|portrait of Dervish Khan]], followed by a group portrait of the ambassador and his son. After finishing the portraits and leaving them with the ambassadors to dry, Vigée Le Brun sought their return in order to exhibit them in the Salon; one of the ambassadors refused the request, stating that a painting "needs a soul", and hid the paintings behind his bed. Vigée Le Brun managed to secure the portraits through the ambassador's valet, which enraged the ambassador to the point that he wished to kill his valet, but he was dissuaded from doing so as "it was not custom in Paris to kill one's valet". She falsely convinced the ambassador that the King wanted the portraits, and they were exhibited in the Salon of 1789. Unknown to the artist, these ambassadors were later executed upon their return to Mysore for failing in their mission to forge a military alliance with Louis XVI. After her husband's death, the paintings were sold along with the remnants of his estate, and Vigée Le Brun did not know who possessed them at the time she wrote her memoirs.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}