Francesca Whitlum-Cooper

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176 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 23 Jul

Francesca Whitlum-Cooper’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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In Our Time · Vigée Le Brun · 23 Jul 2026 podcast

I think what people are seeking if they're commissioning Vigée Le Brun to paint their portrait is a sort of posed informality, if you will.

I think there is something that she brings to the portrait that is lively.

And we have descriptions at the time when the portraits are shown at the salons, for example, in Paris, the salon exhibitions that...

She has this incredible ability to get a sense of people's character or the kind of vivacity of the sitters.

You know, I think today, you know, we think of her portraits as being very flattering, very elegant.

And I think there's always this sort of sense of a sort of slightly negative cadence there.

But actually, you know, even if you were the very wealthiest person in 18th century Europe, how many times, unless you're Marie Antoinette,

How many times are you going to be painted in a portrait in your life?

I mean, maybe half a dozen at the most.

So sort of why would you not want to be shown in your best light?

And I think that's what VJ brings, you know, in a VJ portrait that, you know, it's not going to be rigid, it's not going to be sort of fixed, it'll be a sort of fluttering of the draperies, they'll

There'll be a sense, you know, in your face as well as the sitter of the kind of liveliness of your character.

I think it is.

And I think it's quite difficult for us.

Obviously, we live in a photographic world and, you know, we know everything that comes after.

But actually, it's not true.

But there is this idea that Vigée Lebrun is the inventor of the smile in portraiture.

It's absolutely, I mean, that's a preposterous claim and it's not true.

But it is true that if you were to be wandering or, you know, wandering through a picture gallery of this era, looking around,

one of the ways in which you can identify a VJ portrait is actually, you know, that has sitters do often have this kind of half smile.

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