Self Portrait in a Straw Hat by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun is one of the National Gallery's most captivating paintings. Looking at us directly and holding the tools of her profession, the painter presents herself as an elegant society lady as well as an accomplished professional artist. The pose was modelled on Rubens's Portrait of Susanna Lunden (?), with whom Vigée Le Brun was making an explicit connection.

Vigée Le Brun's life spanned a tumultuous period of French history. Lucy Davies examines the artist's rise to become one of the most successful society portraitists of her age, patronised by Queen Marie-Antoinette. After fleeing the French Revolution in 1789, Vigée Le Brun travelled around Europe and Russia, eventually returning to a transformed Paris.

Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press