The painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was the daughter of the renowned pastellist Louis Vigée. She began her artistic career at the age of fifteen. Talented and gifted, she soon reived prestigious commissions. A sought-after portraitist among the French aristocracy, courtiers and the royal family, she married Jean-Pierre Le Brun, one of the best-known art dealers of his time. Despite strong opposition, Élisabeth, as a woman, was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Her very good relationship with Queen Marie-Antoinette was certainly helpful in securing this promotion. When the Revolution broke out, the artist found herself compromised by her close relations with the royal family and she had to flee France. Her exile took her to Italy (1789-1793), Warsaw /1793-1794) and finally Saint Petersburg (1795-1802). She was not able to return to Paris until 1802.

Our painting dates back to Vigée Le Brun’s Italian exile, during her stay at the court of the Kind of Naples in 1791-1793. It is clearly influenced by neoclassicism and Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), one of the movement’s main representatives.

The sitter, Carlo Gastone della Torre di Rezzonico, was born of noble parents in Como on 11th June 1742 and died in Naples on 25th June 1796 at the age of 54. A cousin of Carlo Rezzonico, who was elected Pope under the name of Clement XIII, he was best known by his contemporaries for his literary activities, particularly as secretary of the Accademia di Bella Lettres di Parma, a position he took in 1769. The painter depicts him leaning ona copy of Plato’s Phaedrus, one of Antonio Canova’s ancient literary inspirations when he designed the bas-reliefs for the mausoleum of Clement XIII Rezzonico, which was inaugurated in 1792.