Self-portrait with Her Daughter, Julie 1786

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun’s Self-portrait with Her Daughter, Julie presents a formal study in intimacy through its composition and colour palette. The figures are closely entwined in a pyramidal structure, rendered with soft, diffused light that evokes tenderness. Vigée Le Brun masterfully employs the Rococo style, yet reworks it through a focus on naturalism. Her careful use of line and form, coupled with a muted yet warm palette, draws us into a private, emotional space. The structure of the painting underscores a particular ideology, wherein motherhood is not merely a biological function, but a central aspect of female identity and self-representation. Notice how the artist’s gaze meets ours directly, challenging the conventional power dynamics between artist, subject, and viewer. Vigée Le Brun uses the portrait to assert her role as both artist and mother, destabilizing traditional patriarchal structures within the art world. The painting then becomes a discourse on female agency, presented through the delicate interplay of form and feeling.