=Questions to arouse interest.= What do you see in this picture? What
relation are these two to each other? Why do you think so? How are they
dressed? Why do you suppose they look so happy? How could Madame Lebrun
paint this picture of herself? From what direction does the light come?
Why do you like the picture?
=Original Picture=: The Louvre, Paris, France.
=Artist=: Madame Vigée-Lebrun (lē brŭN´).
=Birthplace=: Paris, France.
=Dates=: Born, 1755; died, 1842.
=The story of the picture.= Probably we think we know just how we look
and yet I wonder how many of us could tell it to an artist so plainly
that he would be able to paint our portrait. Perhaps at best all we
could tell him would be that his picture did not look like us, though
without knowing why. But it is true that many great artists have painted
their own portraits, and very good likenesses they are, too. In some
ways it ought to be easy, for as they are their own models they can sit
for their pictures as often and as long as they wish.
Madame Lebrun had been planning for some time perhaps to paint a
portrait of herself. Then, just as she was all ready and seated in front
of a long mirror, the door had opened suddenly and in had come her
little daughter. With a hop and a jump she had thrown herself into her
mother’s arms. Then with her arms still about her mother’s neck, she had
happened to think of the mirror, and half turning there she had seen
herself held close in her mother’s embrace. Madame Lebrun realized at
once what a lovely picture it would make, and so she began to paint it.
How much they resemble each other! The little girl’s name was Jeanne
Julie Louise Lebrun, and she must have been very lovely indeed. Her
mother tells us, “She was charming in every respect. Her large blue eyes
sparkling with spirit, her slightly tip-tilted nose, her pretty mouth,
magnificent teeth, a dazzling fresh complexion, all went to make up one
of the sweetest faces to be seen.”
She did not care to draw and paint as her mother did, but she loved to
write stories.
How proud of her lovely mother she seems to be! And indeed she ought to
look proud, and happy too, for perhaps there never was a little girl
more petted and loved. Imagine how proud she must have felt that her
mother was such a great artist, and painted beautiful pictures which
every one admired and which, with her pleasant ways, made her one of the
most beloved women in France.
The light in the picture seems to come from a window at the left-hand
side and to fall directly upon the faces of the mother and child. So
interested are we in them we do not realize that there is no landscape
background, only a suggestion of a curtain or screen against which the
two faces stand out clearly. The mother is dressed in white, the
daughter in a blue which matches her merry blue eyes.
To us these two can never grow sad or old, and we are glad Madame Lebrun
looked in her mirror and gave us this beautiful picture.