Madame Vigée Le Brun et sa fille Julie

Vigee Le Brun painted this in 1786, when she was the favorite portraitist of Marie Antoinette and one of the most sought-after painters at the French court. She shows herself holding her young daughter Julie, both of them looking out warmly, and she is smiling with her lips parted and her teeth showing. That small thing caused a stir. Open-mouthed smiles were thought improper in a formal portrait, and a gossip sheet scolded her for it the very next year. Within three years the court she served would be swept away by revolution, and she fled France as the monarchy collapsed. For now, though, the picture holds only a mother, a child, and one unguarded smile.