”Marie Antoinette en gaulle” (detail), by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (Marie-Louise-Élisabeth Vigée 1755 – 1842).
Vigée’s account on Marie Antoinette :
Marie-Antoinette was tall and admirably built, being somewhat stout, but not excessively so. Her arms were superb, her hands small and perfectly formed, and her feet charming. She had the best gait of any woman in France, carrying her head erect with a dignity that marked her as the Queen in the midst of her whole Court, her majestic mien, however, not in the least diminishing the sweetness and amiability of her face.
To anyone who has not seen the Queen, it is difficult to get an idea of all the graces and nobility combined in her person. Her features were not regular; she had inherited that long and narrow oval peculiar to the Austrian nation. Her eyes were not large; in colour they were almost blue, and they were at the same time merry and kind. Her nose was slender and pretty, and her mouth not too large, though her lips were rather thick.But the most remarkable thing about her face was the splendour of her complexion. I never have seen one so brilliant, and brilliant is the word, for her skin was so transparent that it bore no umber in the painting. Neither could I render the real effect of it as I wished. I had no colours to paint such freshness, such delicate tints, which were hers alone, and which I had never seen in any other woman.
(via courtroyale)
