Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted this radiant self-portrait after 1782, deliberately modeling her pose on Rubens's portrait of Susanna Lunden. She saw the Rubens painting in Brussels and was captivated by its treatment of light: ordinary daylight mixed with the glow of the sun.

Vigée Le Brun made a playful correction to art history. Rubens's painting was known as "Le Chapeau de Paille" (The Straw Hat), but it actually shows a felt hat. So she painted herself wearing a genuine straw hat, adding a feather and garland of wildflowers. The self-portrait caused a sensation at the Paris Salon.

This version at the National Gallery in London is a signed copy of the original, which the artist kept in her private collection. Vigée Le Brun was the leading portrait painter of Marie Antoinette's court and one of the most successful artists of her era, male or female.