I bought this in Paris at an excellent retrospective exhibition - Élisabeth's first, only 163 years after her death!
A two-part tv biography, cleverly filmed to suggest not only the 18th Century Paris that Élisabeth knew but the countries she visited in exile.
Encouraged by her painter father from an early age, Élisabeth determined to be a painter and, at 21, married art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun which gave her an exhibition space for her work and soon she became a sought-after portraitist.
Unhappy with her court portraits, Marie Antoinette requested Élisabeth paint her: both the same age, the women developed a friendly relationship and Élisabeth became the Queen's unofficial court painter.
Élisabeth escaped the Revolution and was exiled for 12 years in Europe: her fame had spread across Italy, Austria and Russia and she managed to make a living until she could eventually return to Paris.
Shelf or charity shop? The series is hampered by the English narrator who has a flat monotone throughout, much better were it narrated by the talking head experts. There is no acting per se - as usual with modern tv documentaries, actors are filmed wandering about, gazing out of windows, giving people SUCH a look - but Marlene Goulard and Julie Ravix as the young and old Élisabeth both look good at what they do! I will keep it for an enjoyable wander through the eventful life of an under-rated artist who proved more than capable of surviving in a dangerous time on her talents and wits; she died aged 86, five years after writing her memoirs, and her tombstone reads "Ici, enfin, je repose..." ("Here, at last, I rest...")
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