This painting is known as self portrait in a straw by Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. In this painting, she painted herself. In order to know more in depth about this painting, knowing the background and the time period of the painter is very vital.
Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun grew up in a time when a lady being a painter was something to be frowned upon. At those times, the duty of the lady was to get married as early as possible, have children, take care of the family and stay as a housewife. It was a patriarchal society. This picture demonstrates the theme self-knowledge very well because it shows that Louise Elisabeth embracing herself as a painter and was very proud of it. Even though it was difficult for her achieve her accomplishments, she continued to do what she wanted.
In this painting, she painted herself in a very interesting way. Some interesting things about this picture is that she is holding a painting palette and some brushes on the left hand. This shows what she is. She sees herself as a painter at a time when this profession was male-dominated. She seems to wear something really expensive in this painting of hers. Also the painter used light colors which creates a joyous feeling. In the painting, Elisabeth is smiling which could imply that she is very content with what she is. She had a self-knowledge and she expresses this concept through her very own painting. If we look closely, we can see that there is still some paint in her paint brushes. I think of this as a very interesting observation because that could possibly mean that she is actively painting. Another interesting observation about this painting is that, even though the painting has a very bright background- symbolizing hope or a bright future, she is wearing a black piece of cloth around her back to the front. One possible interpretation of this would be that even though most of the times are bright, darkness surrounds her always. darkness could symbolize all the tragic things that happened to the painter's life itself. As far as the clarity goes, the painting is very clear and it is painted in a wide distance angle. The focus of this painting is of course the lady, which is also the painter.
Through this painting, the painter achieves the purpose of showing off who she really was as a person and what she wanted to become. Her desire of being a painter is clearly shown in the painting itself.
Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun grew up in a time when a lady being a painter was something to be frowned upon. At those times, the duty of the lady was to get married as early as possible, have children, take care of the family and stay as a housewife. It was a patriarchal society. This picture demonstrates the theme self-knowledge very well because it shows that Louise Elisabeth embracing herself as a painter and was very proud of it. Even though it was difficult for her achieve her accomplishments, she continued to do what she wanted.
In this painting, she painted herself in a very interesting way. Some interesting things about this picture is that she is holding a painting palette and some brushes on the left hand. This shows what she is. She sees herself as a painter at a time when this profession was male-dominated. She seems to wear something really expensive in this painting of hers. Also the painter used light colors which creates a joyous feeling. In the painting, Elisabeth is smiling which could imply that she is very content with what she is. She had a self-knowledge and she expresses this concept through her very own painting. If we look closely, we can see that there is still some paint in her paint brushes. I think of this as a very interesting observation because that could possibly mean that she is actively painting. Another interesting observation about this painting is that, even though the painting has a very bright background- symbolizing hope or a bright future, she is wearing a black piece of cloth around her back to the front. One possible interpretation of this would be that even though most of the times are bright, darkness surrounds her always. darkness could symbolize all the tragic things that happened to the painter's life itself. As far as the clarity goes, the painting is very clear and it is painted in a wide distance angle. The focus of this painting is of course the lady, which is also the painter.
Through this painting, the painter achieves the purpose of showing off who she really was as a person and what she wanted to become. Her desire of being a painter is clearly shown in the painting itself.