Rubens, Portrait of Sussanne Fourment (“Le Chapeau de Paille”), 1635; and Le Brun, Self Portrait, 1782; both in the National Gallery, London.

Here are two pictures:

When he was 58, Rubens painted this portrait of a woman with the red sleeves and the straw hat; Louise Vigée Le Brun, a minor society portraitist of the late 18^th century, painted the one below.  Her self-portrait imitates Rubens’ (she said so).  Rubens painted his wife’s sister, probably on the occasion of her wedding.

Gary Wills says Venetians commissioned wedding portraits of brides; he says the famous reclining Venus who appears to be masturbating is an example, if a bit extreme, among surviving examples of the genre.  Such pictures were thought to encourage the couple’s amorous instincts so as to start them off as lovers and as producers of the next generation.  This might be particularly important as marriages were arranged and the bride and groom may only have met once.  Getting an advance peek and a wee bit horny might be a good idea.

Rubens’ portrait of his future sister-in-law could be in this tradition.  One site I looked at claimed the red on her sleeves is the most striking part of the picture.  That comment is willfully stupid; her breasts, squeezed to bursting out of her bodice with excitement and anticipation, seize one’s attention immediately.  It looks like the lace that’s meant to cover her boobs has slipped a bit!  If I can draw my eyes away, her warm, dark eyes look into mine, her red lips smile, her cheeks are flushed, her hair, too, seems reddish.  The red on the sleeves reinforce the message, as red is the color of love and passion.  All the other colors are rich and lush.  The background is turbulent:  the wedding night will not be placid.  Rubens has left nothing out: the Flemish propagandist of the Counter Reformation has left us a very erotic picture.

Over 150 years later, le Brun (1755 – 1842) painted her self-portrait.  While Rubens was a devout Catholic and enthusiast of the counter-reformation, le Brun, a young French woman of whom I know little, lived in a more secular age and painted women of Versailles, a class noted for doubtful morals. Of course, this portrait is not a wedding portrait.  However, le Brun did choose such a portrait as her model.  Maybe this portrait is an advertisement; using a commissioned portrait as an ad before delivering it to the sitter was common enough among her English contemporaries.

On first glace, the self-portrait is demure:  a cool color of the dress – compared to the striking red --, a cooler, alabaster skin on the chest, and paler eyes.  The sky is cloudy, but not turbulent.  The dress hides more than it reveals. Le Brun stands back, the painter’s body withdraws from the canvas; Rubens is bolder, he is almost in his subject’s lap.  Le Brun holds her palette: this is a professional woman about her business; she just pauses to look at the artist and viewer.  Is the palette a shield to ward us off?  Or just a declaration of her profession?  This is a picture of a woman in public life, not an intimate portrait of a woman about to be married.

I can imagine an erotic undertone, I suppose, as if Le Brun wished to, but can’t, put more erotic energy into the picture.  The palette tugs at her dress, pulling the dress down to her left and giving a hint of her bust.  Her lips are red, there is a blush on her cheeks, and she looks directly at the viewer, more directly in fact, than Rubens’ subject. Sussanne Fourment’s head is tilted downwards; Le Brun accepts our gaze and encourages it. 

On the one hand, we have a professional artist promoting her trade, recommending her talent to potential customers.  On the other hand, she chose a call and response approach to Rubens’ portrait:  her pose, her hat, dress and eyes, cheeks and lips are there.  Its eroticism is downplayed, but she can’t eliminate it entirely.  It’s this tension between her professional requirements and her artistic and human response to Rubens that gives this portrait its power.

I like this portrait.  Le Brun has a decent talent; the painting shows us a lively, pretty, business like artist; if you commission a portrait from her, you’d get good value and not be bored sitting.