From little devils to innocents

Certainly the petted children of Marie Antoinette are painted as little angels by Madame Vigee Le Brun, rather than tiny, bejewelled hieratic figures: this is innocence (and maternity) being celebrated rather than royalty. In her last state portrait of 1787, also by Vigee Le Brun, Marie Antoinette wears regal red velvet and black fur rather than the white muslins that were criticized as being too informal, but she is careful to surround herself with children, one cherub on her lap, one leaning lovingly against her, a third pointing to the empty cradle of a recently dead baby. It was all intended as a propaganda exercise: a queen, but also a tender mother of innocent children. A large jewel box was intended as a reference to the Roman paragon of virtue, Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, who had famously designated her own children when asked to display her greatest treasures. This is the public celebration of contemporary motherhood, to be matched with the celebrated "private" picture of Marie Antoinette's friend, Georgiana, the beautiful Whig Duchess of Devonshire, and her baby by Reynolds in 1784. Here, both mother and child ignore us and concentrate on each other. Georgiana the mother throws up her hand, and Georgiana Cavendish, the baby, copies her in ecstasy: it is surely one of the tenderest expressions of the new maternity ever painted.