Comtesse de Cérès Former title Possibly 1963 - 1992

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun's portrait of the Comtesse de Cérès uses a really nice, soft palette. It feels like she wasn’t trying to capture every single detail but was really into the process. Look at the way the light catches the ruffles on her dress. Vigée Le Brun uses these thin glazes of paint, almost like watercolor, to build up the form gradually. It’s really about the surface, you know? Like, you can see the brushstrokes, but they’re so delicate, like she's caressing the canvas. And that black shawl she's wearing, it’s like a dark cloud enveloping all that sunshine yellow. It gives the whole painting this dramatic tension. What Vigée Le Brun is doing reminds me a bit of some of Fragonard’s portraits. There’s this real interest in capturing the fleeting beauty of the moment, which is not always easy to do.