The Memoirs of Madame Vigée Lebrun

A gifted child in a Paris boarding school, she turned every spare scrap of paper into a study of faces and landscapes, her father’s delighted exclamation sealing a lifelong devotion to the brush. The memoir follows that precocious spark through the bustling cafés and salons of pre‑revolutionary France, where her talent draws the attention of aristocrats, artists, and even the young Dauphin. With vivid recollections of her first commissioned portrait—a striking likeness of a Russian count—she shows how art became both a passport and a refuge amid the era’s turbulence.

Beyond her early successes, the narrative weaves together her encounters with luminaries such as Marie‑Antoinette, the Duchess d’Angoulême, and the vibrant circles of the French Royal Academy. Interlaced with reproduced paintings, the memoir offers a personal view of a woman balancing fame, family, and the whims of a court on the brink of change. Listeners will hear a portrait not just of a painter, but of a resilient spirit whose canvas captured an age.