The charming face of Marie-Anne-Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, who, with
the arms of her daughter encircling her, smiles on us here, was
undoubtedly not painted in this century, as the painter was born
in Paris April 16, 1755, and it is as a young mother that she has
represented herself. But as its author lived until March 30, 1842,
she should undoubtedly figure among the painters of this century. From
early girlhood until old age,

"_Lebrun, de la beaute le peintre et le modele._"

as Laharpe sang, was, though largely self-taught, a formidable
concurrent to painters of the sterner sex. Married when very young
to Lebrun, a dealer in pictures and critic of art, a pure marriage of
convention, she left France shortly before the Revolution, and went
to Italy. Before her departure she was high in favor at the court, and
painted no less than twenty portraits of Marie Antoinette.

[Illustration: BRUTUS CONDEMNING HIS SONS TO DEATH. FROM A PAINTING BY
LETHIERE.

Brutus led in overthrowing the tyranny of Tarquin the Proud and
establishing a republic in Rome. He was then elected one of the
two consuls. His two sons were detected in a conspiracy to restore
Tarquin, and he, as consul, himself condemned them to death.]

[Illustration: THE BURIAL OF ATALA. FROM A PAINTING BY GIRODET, IN THE
LOUVRE.

Atala, the heroine of a romance by Chateaubriand, was the daughter of
a North American Indian chief, passionately in love with the chief
of another tribe, with whom she fled into the desert. But having been
religiously vowed to virginity by her mother, she remains faithful to
the vow, and finally in despair poisons herself.]

[Illustration: MADAME LEBRUN AND HER DAUGHTER. FROM A PAINTING BY
MADAME LEBRUN HERSELF.

This picture, painted for a private patron, passed, at the period of
the French Revolution, into the possession of the French nation, and
is now in the Louvre. There is in the Louvre also another by Madame
Lebrun, representing herself and her daughter, one which the artist
bequeathed to the Louvre at her death, in 1842. Of the two, while
both are charming, the one here printed represents the painter at her
best.]

Fortune favored her in Italy, whence she went to Vienna, Prague,
Dresden, and Berlin. In each and every capital the same success,
due to her talent, beauty, and amiability, followed her; and at last
arriving in St. Petersburg, she remained there until 1801, when she
returned to Paris. Some time after, she visi