Vigée Le Brun fled France at the beginning of the Revolution. She spent the next decade in exile, much of it in St. Petersburg, where she painted Countess Tolstaya (1774–1825). The artist’s portraits are marked by a sense of apparent directness and intimacy – as if we meet the sitters as equals, sharing a bond of mutual understanding. The Countess, casually posed, is at one with her wild surroundings; setting aside convention, she wears an unusually simple dress, inspired by Greek and Roman examples. The portrait holds out the promise of a life freed from society’s constrictions and more in sympathy with nature – a vital element of Enlightenment thought.
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