Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
“Julie Le Brun Looking in a Mirror” (1787)

A celebrated French portraitist, Vigée Le Brun was Marie Antoinette’s favorite painter and a member of the Royal Academy. Her 1787 masterpiece is a remarkable optical illusion: using an impossible perspective, she brings together the thoughtful profile of her seven-year-old daughter, Julie, and her lively reflection in the mirror as a single double portrait.

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