Le souper grec de Mme Vigée Le Brun

Monique Mosser : Mme Vigée Le Brun's Greek supper. The famous woman painter Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun, who held an important Parisian artistic salon in the rue de Clery, attempted to reconstitute a Greek supper after the publication of J. -J. Barthelemy's novel Le Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce in 1788. She thus symbolises the emergence of a new type of social figure — the leader of fashion. The account of this social event given by the artist in her Souvenirs reveals the close link between art and fashion. Apart from the draperies amd Etruscan vases, the disposition of this dinner reproduces «attitudes » and «tableaux vivants » which are essential for an understanding of the evolution of painting and theatrical design on the eve of the Revolution. Thus, a simple dinner can become a manifesto of Neoclassical art at its zenith.Mosser Monique. Le souper grec de Mme Vigée Le Brun. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°15, 1983. Aliments et cuisine. pp. 155-168