In the 18th century, French artist Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun admired the Russians for their cleanliness: they had a bath once a month!!! In other parts of Europe they bathed less often. :-( Soups with diamonds inside, court intrigues and other historical anecdotes are all found in Vigee Lebrun's memoirs. But is the book good??? As promised, here is my review of the Memoirs!
Vigee Lebrun was an 18th century famous French artist, who was particularly admired for her portraits. Marie Antoinette was her most famous customer.
The book is honest, clever and covers a large part of Vigee Lebrun's life, including her long years of traveling across Europe.
However, I found this book rather boring. There are pages and pages of endless descriptions of landscape: in the end, I thought that if I had to go through another 5,000 words on how a lake looked like I would go insane!
Plus, we get to read a lot about the people Elizabeth meets, but not too much about herself. This is rather depressing, as if she somehow doesn't exist.
I would recommend the Memoirs only if you are interested in reading about landscapes, European history and history of art. Even so, the book is like a boring textbook and not like a piece you might enjoy.
Have a good evening and be well! Xxx
#frenchart #art #femaleartists #thelipstickpapers #history #frenchhistory#eighteenthcentury #vigeelebrun
#frenchart #art #femaleartists #thelipstickpapers #history #frenchhistory#eighteenthcentury #vigeelebrun
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