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For Queen and Country: Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun’s Portrait of Marie-Antoinette with Her Children

© Jessica Cresseveur

It could be said that Marie-Antoinette never had the chance to successfully convey a positive image of herself to the people of eighteenth-century France. Upon her arrival from her native Austria in 1770, the then fifteen year-old Dauphine (crown princess) was a victim of xenophobia. Within a short period of time, rumours of her squandering the royal treasury were circulating, and peddlers both in France and other European countries were distributing pornographic pamphlets depicting her engaging in sexual relations with various men and women who frequented the court. Despite her supposed promiscuity, the Dauphine, who became queen in 1774, did not become pregnant early in her marriage. Although this was the fault of her husband, who failed to consummate the marriage until 1777, the lack of an immediate continuation of the bloodline also tarnished her image in the eyes of the Parisian market women, or poissardes, who contrasted Marie-Antoinette with her grandmother-in-law Marie Leczinska--beloved amongst the poissardes--who bore ten children between 1727 and 1737.(1)

Unfortunately, pregnancy and motherhood did nothing to improve the young queen's reputation. Ultimately bearing four children, she was branded the "Bad Mother" in the eye of public opinion.(2) Of course, rumours of her sexual appetite led critics to call into question the paternity of the children, including the young heir to the throne.(3) Shortly before her execution in 1793, she was publicly accused of molesting her younger son Louis-Charles, who was then only eight years old.(4)

Contrary to the claims of popular literature, Marie-Antoinette actually preferred the company of a small circle of trusted friends and family members. Shortly after the birth of her third child, she was quoted as having said, "I wish to live as a mother, to feed my child and devote myself to its upbringing."(5) Despite this, the public's attacks continued. In an attempt to convey her as a traditional mother, the king's ministers commissioned Swedish artist Adolphe-Ulrich Wertmüller to produce a portrait of the queen with her two eldest children for the Salon of 1785.(6) However, the combination of cold colours and conspicuous lack of intrafamilial affection failed to achieve the government's objective.(7)

Realising the negative public reaction to the Wertmüller portrait, the government commissioned another portrait, this time by the queen's favourite painter and close friend Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, to be displayed in the Salon of 1787. The seriousness of the government's intention was displayed in their paying her 18,000 livres--more than the per-commission salary of the top (male) history painters of the day. Here, the queen poses with her three surviving children in the Salon de la Paix in the Palace of Versailles. The triangular arrangement in which they are positioned is significant, as it recalls the composition of the Holy Family in Italian Renaissance paintings.(8) It is quite clear that the artist has attempted to convey her sovereign and friend as living a lifestyle closer to that of the Virgin Mary, rather than the Eve as she was conveyed in popular satire. Likewise, the children are given the Christ-like qualities denied them in the minds of those who would represent them as bastard monsters.