Self Portrait in a Straw Hat

Vigée Le Brun painted Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat around 1782, one of her most celebrated and technically ambitious self-portraits, modeled on Rubens's portrait of his sister-in-law Susanna Lunden (known as 'Le Chapeau de Paille' in the Brussels collection). The challenge Vigée Le Brun set herself was to capture the specific optical effect of outdoor light from above the picture plane — the light source visible within the composition — that Rubens had achieved, demonstrating by competing with the greatest Flemish master that her own abilities matched his across the gender divide that conventionally separated women from the highest achievements of European painting.

Vigée Le Brun captures brilliant outdoor light filtering through the straw hat brim, creating the luminous complexion effects she learned from studying Rubens. The warm palette and fresh brushwork give the self-portrait an immediacy that transcends 18th-century formality.