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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi, I'm Eves and Welcome to This Day

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Speaker 1: in History Class, a show that on covers a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about history every day. Today is April nineteen.

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Speaker 1: The day was April sixteen, seventeen fifty five. Elizabeth Louise

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Speaker 1: Vja was born in Paris to Louis Vija in Jean Mussan.

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Speaker 1: From the time she was a young girl, Elizabeth took

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Speaker 1: an interest in art, and by the time she was fifteen,

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Speaker 1: she was making enough money from her art to support

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Speaker 1: her family. Elizabeth's mother was a hairdresser, which meant she

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Speaker 1: had some contact with aristocrats. Elizabeth's father was a past

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Speaker 1: deal portraitist, and he trained her as an artist when

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Speaker 1: she returned home from a convent she attended a young girl.

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Speaker 1: His artistry also gave the family access to the larger

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Speaker 1: art world, and she was taught by other popular artists.

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Speaker 1: In her memoirs, Elizabeth recounted how much art consumed her

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Speaker 1: as a child, saying, I scrawled on everything at all seasons.

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Speaker 1: My copybooks and even those of my schoolmates had their

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Speaker 1: margins crammed with tiny drawings of heads and profiles. But

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth's father died when she was only twelve years old,

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Speaker 1: and her passion for art waned for a little while.

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Speaker 1: Within a year, her mother had married a jeweler whom

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth and her brother Etienne despised. Elizabeth's interests in art

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Speaker 1: quickly returned, though, as painter Gabrielle Francois Doya, an old

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Speaker 1: family friend, encouraged her to keep making art, and she

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Speaker 1: went to museums and galleries with her mom, studying the

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Speaker 1: masterpieces of renowned artists. She often visited the Louver and

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Speaker 1: Coppy artworks of artists like Van Dyke and Rembrandt. Her

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Speaker 1: painting style was not quite Rococo, but not completely Neo

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Speaker 1: Classicist either. As her skill crew so did the number

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Speaker 1: of people who wanted her to paint their portraits, and

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Speaker 1: her commissions provided the financially strained family with much needed money.

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Speaker 1: At age nineteen, she became a member of the Painters

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Speaker 1: Guild of the Academy the Saint Luke. By seventeen seventy six,

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth had married Jean Baptiste Pierre Liberal, an art dealer

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Speaker 1: and artist. The marriage gave her even more access to

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Speaker 1: art collections and the top tiers of French society. Though

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Speaker 1: the marriage was good for her professional life, Jean Baptiste

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Speaker 1: Pierre wasn't a great husband, as he was prone to

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Speaker 1: gambling off Elizabeth's money, among other misdis The couple had

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Speaker 1: a daughter named Jean Julie Louise, whom Elizabeth loved. When

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth was twenty three, Empress Maria Teresa of Austria commissioned

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth to paint a portrait of her daughter, none other

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Speaker 1: than Queen Marie Antoinette. Elizabeth was known for her ability

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Speaker 1: to make her clients comfortable, and soon she and the

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Speaker 1: Queen became friends. Over a decade, she painted thirty portraits

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Speaker 1: of Marie Antoinette. Thanks to her increasing popularity and relationship

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Speaker 1: with the Queen, Elizabeth was soon accepted as a member

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Speaker 1: of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. When she

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Speaker 1: was admitted at the age of twenty eight and seventeen

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Speaker 1: eighty three, she was one of just four women in

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Speaker 1: the academy. Elizabeth was hosting social gatherings at her home

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Speaker 1: and she was painting so much it was literally making

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Speaker 1: her sick. But even though her notoriety as an artist

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Speaker 1: was growing, the French Revolution forced her to flee France.

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Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty nine, she moved with her daughter to

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Speaker 1: Italy with little money to her name, then several other

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Speaker 1: play this in Europe, during which time she continued to

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Speaker 1: paint portraits and landscapes. She had prestigious clients wherever she went,

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Speaker 1: as her reputation preceded her. Elizabeth and her husband divorced

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Speaker 1: in seventee and she ended up settling in Russia for

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Speaker 1: six years. While in Russia, her mother died and her

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Speaker 1: daughter married a man whom she wasn't particularly fond of.

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Speaker 1: She went back to Paris after the Revolution, but she

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Speaker 1: wasn't really feeling the city's new vibe. But after a

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Speaker 1: stint in London, Elizabeth ended up back in France, where

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Speaker 1: she lived for the rest of her life. Sadly, her

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Speaker 1: ex husband, daughter, and brother died in her later years,

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Speaker 1: but she never stopped making art. Throughout her lifetime, Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: is estimated to have made more than six hundred paintings.

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Speaker 1: She was elected to art academies and ten cities, and

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Speaker 1: found success in the arts despite being a largely self

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Speaker 1: taught women. In eight thirty five, she published the first

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Speaker 1: volume of her memoirs, Elizabeth died in March of eighteen

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Speaker 1: forty two, though the first major international retrospective of her

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Speaker 1: art wasn't held until more than seventy years after her death.

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth is now known for her naturalistic and relaxed art style,

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Speaker 1: sympathy with her sitters, and technical skill. I'm Eves Jeff

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Speaker 1: Coo and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to learn

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Speaker 1: more about Elizabeth, listen to the episode of Stuff You

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Speaker 1: Missed in History Class called Elizabeth les viv. If you're

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Speaker 1: so inclined, you can follow us at T d i

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Speaker 1: h C Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Come back

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for another tidbet from History.