Description of the picture:
Portrait of the daughters of Emperor Paul I – Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun. 1796. Oil on canvas. 99×99
French artist Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842) belongs to a small number of European painters who managed to occupy a place in the foreground of the art of their time. Beloved portrait painter of the Queen of France Marie Antoinette, she emigrated with the start of the revolution and, having traveled to many European capitals, settled in Russia for six years.
Portrait of the Grand Duchesses Alexandra and Elena executed by the artist in 1796, when he was the thirteenth to fourteenth year. The faces of the models are somewhat idealized, but each has a special expression. The eldest, Alexandra, looks like her brother, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, the features of the younger, in a pink dress, are smaller. The princesses are shown next to each other, they only looked up at the viewer for a minute, looking up from the contemplation of a miniature portrait of their grandmother, Catherine II, in a diamond frame. Initially, the princesses’ outfits were different. The rumor that Catherine II seemed overly frank, prompted the portraitist to change the clothes of the girls from Greek tunics to dresses with long sleeves. Working at the Russian imperial court, Vigee-Lebrun received a large number of orders from the aristocracy, which contributed to its financial prosperity. At the invitation of Napoleon, the artist returned to France, where she also worked fruitfully and successfully."
