Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Memoirs of a Painter

At the age of 15, the author was earning enough money from her portrait painting to support herself, her widowed mother, and her younger brother. She became Marie Antoinette's favorite painter; European aristocrats, actors, and writers were also her patrons. Vige-Lebrun returned to France in 1809 and wrote her memoirs when she was 80.