Professor Stephanie Dickey, Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art, Department of Art History and Art Conservation at Queen’s, will introduce the speaker. A reception follows the talk. All are welcome.

Speaker: Paul Lang, Deputy Director and Chief Curator National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun can be considered the most important woman painter of her time. As early as 1778, she became Marie-Antoinette’s official portraitist, a title which was very beneficial to her career. Demonstrating a virtuosity that aroused much jealousy, she had a large clientele as she managed to portray her models with a beauty and an elegance that was not far from reality. Forced to flee France in 1789, she continued to renew the portrait genre in various European capitals. In Italy, Austria, Russia and Germany until 1802, then in England and Switzerland until 1808, she only strengthened her prestige and fame.

For this public talk, the Agnes is pleased to partner with the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference, taking place at Queen’s and the Royal Military College. It is one of three public programs presenting distinct topics with 18th-century roots reflected in current public discourse, in Surveillance Studies, Art History, and Indigenous Studies, aided by the generous sponsorship of the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada. For more information on the conference, please see http://www.csecs-scedhs-2016.ca/program/