Visitors to the IU Art Museum this semester might notice a portrait is missing.
The IU Art Museum loaned the “Portrait of Mrs. Chinnery,” from the exhibit “About Face: 200 Years of Portraiture from Indiana University” to an art museum in Paris.
The portrait is in a special exhibition, “Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1755-1842,” at the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais in Paris, the first retrospective ever devoted to Vigée Le Brun in France.
“(The portrait) is one of the most sought-after portraits in late 18th-early 19th century Europe,” Dr. Jenny McComas, IU Art Museum curator, said.
The loan was requested by the organizers of the Vigée Le Brun exhibition and approved by the IU Art Museum because of the importance of the exhibit and the painting’s good condition.
“Lending the Vigée Le Brun portrait to Paris increases the visibility of the museum and its collection on an international scale,” McComas said. “In addition, the loan is contributing to the advancement of scholarship on this fascinating artist who has been relatively neglected by art historians until recently.”
Artist Vigée Le Brun is one of the first internationally successful female artists. McComas said she painted several portraits of Marie Antoinette between the late 1770s and late 1780s. The most famous of these depicts the queen as a mother surrounded by her children — this was a failed attempt to repair the queen’s declining reputation and popularity.
After the storming of the Bastille in 1789, Vigée Le Brun left France and traveled around Europe for more than a decade. She painted members of the aristocracy and intelligentsia in Italy, Austria, Germany, Russia and England, McComas said.
In 1803, Vigée Le Brun arrived in England. She soon became close friends with Margaret Chinnery, the subject of the portrait.
Her husband, William Chinnery, held a post in the British Treasury, but was dismissed in 1812 resulting from a misappropriation of public funds.
Nevertheless, McComas said the “Portrait of Mrs. Chinnery” remained in the family until 1899, when it was sold to the Agnew Gallery in London.
The painting then passed through the hands of several additional dealers and private collectors before coming to the IU Art Museum in 1975, McComas said.
“The portrait is one of the most important of Vigée Le Brun’s commissions in England,” McComas said.
Vigée Le Brun developed a close friendship with Mrs. Chinnery and in her memoirs described Margaret as “a very handsome woman whose mind has great finesse and charm,” remembering the warm welcome she received at the Chinnery’s home.
The portrait will be on loan from Sept. 23, 2015 to Jan. 11, 2016. Many art museum staff members, including the art director David Brenneman, recently traveled to Paris in order to see the portrait in the exhibit.
“It was great to see the Indiana University Art Museum’s painting in such great company,” Brenneman said. “Vigée Le Brun was an incredibly talented, but under recognized artist. It was satisfying to see her achievement properly recognized by the exhibition.”
