The official National Women's History Month is now over, but in reality every month is women's history month. I'm going to close it out with the artist who has been displayed all month, Elizabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842). She is one of the most successful painters of all time, yet I had never heard of her before this month. She studied with her father and also by practicing painting in the style of the great artists of her time (her self-portrait is modeled on a famous painting by Rubens), married another painter with the last name of lebrun (though he doesn't matter), was the official painter for Marie Antoinette which enabled her to be one of the first women to be admitted into the French art academies, and escaped France just before the revolution and traveled extensively painting. She painted mainly portraits, painted about 1000 paintings during her lifetime, and also trained other painters, including her daughter, though her daughter died before she did. 
Peace Bringing Back Plenty (1783)
Picture on left:
Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (after 1782)
on right:
Marie Antoinette and Her Children (1788)
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