French school circa 1790, workshop of Élisabeth VIGÉE LE BRUN Portrait of the composer Paisello Canvas Dated 1791 at bottom Height : 130 cm ; Width : 97 cm Exhibition: - Turin, Teatro Regio, L'arcano incanto, May-September 1991, no. IV.27 (as Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun). In the aftermath of the French Revolution, on the night of October 5 to 6, 1789, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was forced to migrate to Italy. to migrate to Italy. Although this Italian period gave a new inflection to her work, in Paris she continued to present to present her paintings at the Salon. In 1790, she established herself in Naples where she met Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816), the famous music composer. This encounter left a lasting impression on both artists. Paisiello was born in Naples, where, from the age of 5, his voice attracted the attention of the Marquis of Fragagnano, Kapellmeister of the Church of the Capuchins. Chapel Master of the Capuchin Church. Under his patronage, the young musician trained at the Naples conservatory in Naples under the supervision of the Baroque composer Francesco Durante. From then on, Paisiello embarked on a musical career that took him from Bologna to Modena to Venice, writing his own works or adapting others. his own works or adapting scores by other composers. It was really with his operas bouffes such as La Pupille that the artist really came into his own. By 1766, Paisiello returned to his native Naples. He quickly became the benchmark for opera buffa, mixing styles styles, tonalities and settings. Such was his critical success that King Ferdinand IV commissioned his creation Chinese Idol at court for the arrival of his brother-in-law Joseph II and his wife Marie-Caroline of Austria. The musician became responsible for Ferdinand IV's royal bedroom. It was at this moment Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted the musician at the height of his fame. The original composition remained in the artist's collection until its bequest to the Musée du Louvre in 1842. Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun exhibited a similar version at the Salon of 1791, now kept at the châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. MV 5877). Going against the Romantics, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun delivers a personal vision of the artist at her instrument. Against a dark background that highlights the Italian composer, Giovanni Paisiello is looking elsewhere, his face modulating to the fervor of his artistic inspiration. His hands simply rest on the keyboard keyboard of his pianoforte, waiting to play, while the scores of his operas, including the Rondo di Nina di Nina and the Te Deum, which were resounding successes at the time.