Bibliography:
The
Exceptional Woman : Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun and the Cultural Politics of
Art by Mary D. Sheriff. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Memoirs of Madame Vigee Lebrun. George Braziller, 1989.
Bibliography:
Le Petit Larousse Illustré 2002. Larousse.
Paris. 2002.
Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Countess and then Duchess de Polignac (1749-1793), was the closest friend and confidant of the Queen Marie Antoinette. In 1767 she married Count Jules de Polignac who was raised to the Duke de Polignac in 1780. She was never faithful to her husband. She received many favors for her and her family. The queen appointed her the Governess of the Queen's children. The charming, ambitious, lecherous and unscrupulous duchess contributed to the Queen's unpopularity. She left Paris when the French Revolution started. She died in Vienna on 1793. Her husband died in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1817.
Golovina, Varvara Nikolaevna (1766-1821),
née Princess Golitzina, daughter of Lieutenant General, Prince Nikolay
Feodorovich Golitzin (1728-1780) and his wife Praskovia Ivanovna, née
Countess Shuvalova (1734-1802). She spent her childhood in a country estate
of her father and was brought up and educated by her mother, who was a
genuine art lover. In 1777, the princess was brought to St. Petersburg,
where, after her father’s death in 1780, her widowed mother moved with
the daughter to the house of her brother Count Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov
(1727-1797), one of Catherine II’s favorites, an outstanding statesman
and a patron of arts. (see his portrait by Levitzky, about him make a new
big note!!!). Staying in her uncle’s house played the most important role
in building up the young girls character and interests. In 1783, Varvara
Nikolaevna was raised to the rank of maid of honor of the Grand Duchess
Elisabeth Alexeevna (1779-1826), wife of the Grand Duke Alexander
Pavlovich, future emperor Alexander I.
In 1786 she married Count Nikolai Nikolaevich Golovin (?-1820
) by love, who had managed to make the young girl fall in love with him.
Varvara’s clever mother was against the marriage; and really, Count Golovin,
a squanderer and a fop, failed to make his wife happy; her anticipations
of quiet and durable family unity were not realized and she gave her lovable
heart to the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeevna, who became her life-long
idol.
During the Paul’s I reign Golovina’s envious foes set the court against
her. Even Elisabeth Alexeevna believed the slander and for some time stopped
her friendship with the countess. Insulted Golovina retired from the court;
immigrants, mostly from France, became her new circle of friends.
Under their influence she adopted Catholicism and became a devoted and
passionate believer.
During Alexander’s I reign the Empress Elisabeth Alexeevna restored
their friendship. On her request Countess Golovina wrote memoirs, which
are an interesting historical document of the time. She spent most of her
time abroad, mostly with French aristocrats, visiting Russia only from
time to time. Being an intelligent and gifted woman, herself a painter
and engraver, she had also friends among artists. Thus she was a close
friend of Mme Vigée-Lebrun and Hubert Robert, with whom she often
worked together on landscapes. In 1816, she was awarded the order of St.
Catherine and her daughters, Elisabeth and Praskovia, raised in Catholicism,
became maids of honor. Countess Golovina died and was buried in Paris in
1821.
Bibliography:
Famous Russians in the 18th and 19th centuries. Lenizdat.
St. Peterburg. 1996. (in Russian)