Marie Antoinette with a Rose

Marie Antoinette with a Rose is a portrait painting by the french artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842). It was painted in 1783.

In the painting we see the ill fated Queen of France at her most happiest time, when the troubles of the future would have seemed unimaginable.

The queen holds in her hand a single white rose, whose inner pink matches the blush of her cheeks. She stares at us and wants us to admire it. Her dress is a light blue colour, with lace and frills. She has feathers in her hair. Her entire appearance is as fragile as the rose that she holds.

In the background we see a garden with more roses growing on a bush. It was a place she would have loved to be in - away from the all the court pomp and ceremony.

The landscape is dark and ominous. Marie-Antoinette stands bright and shining against the gloomy backdrop. The trees are black and their features are barely perceptible. The sky is a dark blue - an omen for the storm to come. This combination of the delicacy of the flowers and the dark background is a great symbol for Marie-Antoinette's whole life - a life of gilded simplicity that was cut short by the violence of the French Revolution.

This painting comes to us from the last days of rococo art. It was art that represented all that was delicate and too soft for this world. It was art of princesses frolicking in the gardens with not a care in the world. All of it would be washed away by the birth of the new industrial age that brought with it the end of the old aristocracy.