Book series design: Vigee Le Brun: Self Portrait in a Straw Hat: (One Painting, One Story)

Self Portrait in a Straw Hat presents one of the most successful and enduring portraitists of the eighteenth century. Holding the tools of her profession, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun depicts herself as both elegant society lady and accomplished professional artist.

Vigée Le Brun did not have access to the same formal artistic training as her male counterparts, yet by the age of 20 she was firmly established at court. She enjoyed a rapid rise to fame, becoming the favourite painter of Queen Marie-Antoinette. But success, beauty and royal connections were just one side of this artist’s extraordinary life, which spanned a tumultuous period of French history. Her story also takes in her forced exile during the French Revolution and travels across Europe before her eventual return to a transformed Paris.