In July of that year she returned to Berlin and received the honor of being chosen a member of the Academy. Orders for portraits were not wanting, but her short stay made it impossible to undertake them. Passing through Dresden she returned to the native land for which her heart had ever pined, arriving in safety at Paris in the winter of the same year.
The misfortunes of the Bourbons had filled her breast with sympathizing grief wherever the news had reached her. She remained true to them through all reverses, living to witness both the restoration and second and final exile of that royal line. This loyal feeling manifested itself even in her relations to the imperial family, when they were in possession of the throne.
Her picture of “Venus binding Love’s wings” had been engraved in Paris by Pierre Villu, in 1787. In London she was attacked by the painter Hoppner, who depreciated her works, and charged her with mannerism. She succeeded, nevertheless, in obtaining distinguished patrons. Two pieces that spread her renown were, a knee-piece of the Prince of Wales, and one of the Signora Grassini in a classic character. The draperies are luxuriant and rainbow-colored.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, when questioned by Northcote on the merits of two of her portraits, pronounced them “as fine as those of any painter,” and he would not except Vandyck, though his remark has been attributed to a generous unwillingness to interfere with the brief summer of her popularity. After a residence of three years in England she came to Paris to paint the portrait of Madame Murat.
At Coppet, whither she went on a journey into Switzerland in 1808-9, she painted a portrait of Madame de Staël, which aided much in spreading her reputation. Having returned from this tour, she purchased a country-seat near Marly, which became, as her house in Paris had been, the resort of a highly cultivated and brilliant society. Especially at the period of the Restoration, public attention, influenced by that of the court, seemed turned to Madame Le Brun with greater earnestness than ever.
The husband of this accomplished woman died in 1813, and five years afterward she lost her only daughter. Her death was followed by that of the brother to whom Madame Le Brun was so much attached. These multiplied afflictions weighed heavily upon her desolate heart. She sought consolation in renewed devotion to her art, and worked in her profession as assiduously as ever, notwithstanding the infirmities of advanced age. When eighty years old she painted the portrait of her niece, Madame de Riviere, and so remarkable for vigorous coloring and lively expression was this picture that it has been preserved among the best specimens of her powers in their prime of energy.
About this time, in 1835, she gave the world her autobiography, in the work entitled “Souvenirs.” In this memoir she enumerates the paintings which she had at that time executed during her life. She had finished six hundred and sixty-two portraits, fifteen large compositions, and two hundred landscape-pieces, sketched during her travels in England and Switzerland.
She had nearly completed her eighty-seventh year at the time of her death, March 30th, 1842. Her long life had been as richly productive in earnest labor as in the reward of success, and in manifold enjoyment. It may, indeed, be regarded, in its rare bloom and vigor, as a type of that brilliant period, gay and luxuriant on the surface, but concealing numerous imperfections, which preceded the French Revolution, and led, as a natural consequence, to that tremendous outbreak.
CHAPTER XV.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Women Artists in Spain.—Their Participation a Test of general Interest.—Female Representatives of the most important Schools.—That of Seville.—Of Madrid.—The Paintress of Don Quixote.—Ladies of Rank Members of the Academy.—Maria Tibaldi.—Two female Artists besides two Poetesses in Portugal.—The Harvest greater in Italy.—Few attained to Eminence.—Learned Ladies.—Female Doctors and Professors.—Degrees in Jurisprudence and Philosophy conferred on them.—Examples.—The Scholar nine Years old.—A lady Professor of Mathematics.—Women Lecturers.—Comparison with English Ladies.—Brilliant Devotees of the Lyre.—Female Talent in the important Schools of Art.—Women Artists in Florence.—Engravers and Paintresses.—In Naples.—Kitchen-pieces.—In the Cities of northern Italy.—In Bologna.—Princesses.—In Venice.—Rosalba Carriera.—Her childish Work.—Her Genius perceived.—Instruction.—Takes to Pastel-painting.—Merits of her Works.—Celebrity.—Invitations to Paris and Vienna.—Visit from the King of Denmark.—Invited by the Emperor and the King of France.—Portrait for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.—The King of Poland her Patron.—Unspoiled by Honors.—Her moral Worth.—Residence in Paris.—Her Pictures.—The Lady disguised as a Maid-servant.—Want of Beauty.—Anecdote of the Emperor.—Rosalba’s Journal.—Visit to Vienna.—Presentiment of Calamity.—The Portrait wreathed with gloomy Leaves.—Blindness.—Loss of Reason.—Death and Burial.—Her Portrait.—Other Venetian Women.