Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun was the daughter of an artist and studied the masterworks of Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van Dyck. In 1783, she was admitted to France's Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Before she fled the French Revolution, she made her way painting portraits of the French court, including Marie Antoinette. In exile, she painted the royalty of Naples, Russia, and Great Britain. Unlike most of the great old masters, Vigee Le Brun left a detailed memoir recounting her travels as an independent woman and artist. With a lively wit she describes meeting Catherine the Great,...