The Chemise Portrait

In 1783, Vigée Le Brun exhibited a portrait of Marie Antoinette wearing a simple white muslin dress (a chemise à la reine) instead of formal court attire. The scandal was enormous. Critics said the queen looked like she was in her undergarments.

Vigée Le Brun's gift was making power look like intimacy. She painted the queen with a loose, luminous softness — flushed cheeks, relaxed poses, natural light — that flattered her sitter and showed off real skill. That talent earned the painter rare admission to the French Royal Academy, where most members were men. Her warm style was meant to make the queen feel human and approachable to a public that increasingly saw her as a stranger.