The Comtesse de la Châtre

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Comtesse de la Châtre, 1789, oil on canvas.

     Through Queen Marie-Antoinette, Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was introduced to Maria Charlotte Louise Perrette Algaé Bontemps, the wife of the comte de la Châtre. Bontemps was an only child and extremely wealthy. She married the comte for status, power, and more wealth, rather than for love. However, when divorce was legalized in France, Bontemps left her husband for a lover, François Arnail de Jaucourt.

     Bontemps sat for a portrait in 1789, titled Comtesse de la Châtre. She is dressed in a embroidered, white muslin dress that was popularized in Vigeé Le Brun's portraits of Queen Marie-Antoinette, appearing simple but elegant. She is seated on a couch with an open book in her hand, although she is facing the artist with an unreadable expression rather than enjoying the literature. Regardless, the book indicates that she is an educated and literate woman, a symbol of her class status.