Vigée-Lebrun, (Marie) Elisabeth (Louise) (1755–1842)

French portrait painter. She was trained by her father (a painter in pastels) and Greuze. She became painter to Queen Marie Antoinette in the 1780s, and many royal portraits survive, executed in a flattering rococo style.

At the outbreak of the Revolution 1789 she left France and travelled in Europe, staying in St Petersburg, Russia, 1795–1802. She resettled in Paris 1809. She published an account of her travels, Souvenirs 1835–37, written in the form of letters.