One of the finest eighteenth-century French painters and among the most important women artists of all time, she is celebrated for her expressive portraits of French royalty and aristocracy, and especially of her patron Marie Antoinette. Vigée Le Brun exemplified success and resourcefulness in an age when women were rarely al- lowed either. Because of her close association with the queen, Vigée Le Brun was forced to flee France during the French Revolution. For twelve years she travelled throughout Europe, painting noble sitters in the courts of Naples, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. She returned to France in 1802, under the reign of Napoleon where she continued to work with success in France, London and Switzerland. Her work and her life make her an extraordinary woman working in dramatically changing times