Julie Le Brun

Jeanne-Julie-Louise Nigris, nicknamed "Brunette", was a painter and the daughter of Élisabeth Vigée, who was also known as Madame Le Brun, and was the model for many of her paintings.

Life

Julie Le Brun was born on 12 February 1780 in Paris, France, to Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun and Élisabeth Vigée, also known as Madame Le Brun. When her parents separated in 1789, Julie traveled with her mother. Early in life she produced a number of pastels, including one after a piece by Jakob Orth; in her memoirs the elder painter refers to ses heureuses dispositions pour la peinture.
Relations with her mother were strained from time to time, especially after her marriage to Gaëtan Bernard Nigris in 1799. The couple soon separated. Le Brun attempted to support herself with her art, appearing in 1811 under the name "Dlle Nigris" in an exhibit in the rue Saint-Lazare. She died at the age of 39 in 1819.
Despite their strained relationship, her mother wrote in her memoirs:

This blow , however, was far less than the cruel grief I experienced at the death of my daughter. I hastened to her as soon as I heard of her illness, but the disease progressed rapidly, and I cannot tell what I felt when all hope of saving her was gone. When, going to see her the last day, my eyes fell upon that dreadfully sunken face, I fainted away. My old friend Mme. de Noisville rescued me from that bed of sorrow; she supported me, for my legs would not carry me, and took me home. The next day I was childless! Mme. de Verdun came with the news, and vainly tried to soften my despair. All the wrongdoing of the poor little one vanished—I saw her again, I still see her, in the days of her childhood. Alas! she was so young! Why did she not survive me?