The Duchess of Caderousse(Louise Vigée Le Brun)
Among the gallery of portraits sold from New York was one of the finest examples of the work of Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842), the favorite portrait painter of Queen Marie-Antoinette. This shows the Duchess of Caderousse, posed simply in the costume of a countrywoman, with her hair unpowdered – after the first sitting when she went straight to the opera as she had posed, with her hair loose and natural, she inspired a revolution in ladies’ fashions.
Acquired by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.
Stair Sainty Matthiesen & Matthiesen Gallery, ’50 paintings’, 1993