Critcs - straw hat

• EVLB - seen at Salon

  'When this picture was exhibited at the Salon, I must say it did much to enhance my reputation'
• Gill Perry - skill not flattery


  'whole point of the painting was precisely to show off her own skills as an artist rather than depicting herself in a flattering way'
• Gill Perry - conforming as successful


  'conforms to a general convention for artists to depict themselves as affluent, successful and well-dressed'
• Jonathan Jones - change on subject with Rubens and EVLB


  "In the Rubens there there is flesh for the the male eye, yet Lunden's face is in shadow in Vigee Le Brun's self-portrait it is her entire social being that is illuminated. You can't have the woman unless your acknowledge the brilliant painter."
• Pollock and Parker - object not artist


  "She offers herself as a beautiful object to be looked at...but conveys nothing of the activity, the work, the mindfulness of the art she purports to pursue...it is wholly unconvincing"
• Pollock and Parker - brushes and echoing other colours 


  "She holds her brushes and palette with an elegant and unworkmanly gesture"

  also states that the paint colours on palette echo flowers on her hat
• Laura Cumming


  "abandoning rules...She makes explicit...that self-portraits are more often than not made with a public in view."
• Griselda Pollock


  "Her dress is social, outdoor and fashionable. Her hairstyle, her decorations have been faithfully set down...a carefully organised interplay of artifice and nature"