Marie Antoinette in a Muslin dress

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted this portrait of Marie Antoinette in 1783, depicting the queen in a simple muslin dress rather than the formal court attire expected of French royalty. The portrait, known as "La Reine en Gaulle" or "Marie Antoinette en chemise," caused immediate scandal when displayed at the Salon du Louvre. The queen's critics saw only a woman painted in her underwear.

The dress had multiple names, each carrying its own controversy. "En chemise" referred to undergarments. "En gaulle" pointed to the imported muslin fabric, seen as unpatriotic when French silk workers were struggling. "À la Creole" suggested colonial exoticism inappropriate for a European queen. Marie Antoinette's sister-in-law had been painted in similar attire without incident, but the queen's enemies seized on this image as evidence of her frivolity and disregard for propriety.

The backlash was severe enough that Vigée Le Brun painted a replacement portrait, "Marie Antoinette with a Rose," showing the queen in proper formal dress. Some historians now view this scandal as an early turning point in public opinion against Marie Antoinette, predating even the infamous Diamond Necklace Affair. The original painting now hangs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, a document of the moment when a simple muslin dress became political dynamite.