From a comparison of the two portraits, a contrast might be drawn in the contemplation of the lives and characters of the two artists. But we will return to Madame Le Brun, whom we find pursuing the journeys she made as a conqueror, receiving new honors and new tributes wherever she passed. After visiting Florence and Parma, where she was elected a member of the Academy, she went to Venice, Verona, and Milan. Italy--the land where the fairest fruits of female genius in painting had been found--seemed eager to pay the homage of admiration to the gifted daughter of another clime. Compliments and felicitations were showered upon her by the countrymen of a Sirani and a Robusti. She came at length to Vienna, where the Count Kaunitz received her with friendly welcome, and immediately introduced her at court. A golden harvest here awaited her efforts, and gallant attentions from persons in high places were not wanting. The Prince de Ligne--a type of the cavaliers of the _ancien régime_, whom she had known in former years at the court of Versailles--devoted himself to her service, and sang her praises in amatory verses. Visiting Berlin, she found an old friend in the person of Prince Henry, and had a very favorable reception at court. Thence she went to St. Petersburg, where she lived some years in a brilliant circle of society under the protection of the Empress Catherine II. and Paul I. The honors heaped upon her were crowned in 1800 by her election to membership in the Academy of Arts; but, notwithstanding the favor in which she stood with the imperial family and the nobility, and the influx of wealth that grew out of their kindness and the extended appreciation of her paintings, the condition of her health at last obliged her to quit Russia. The entreaties of the emperor and empress could not prevail upon her to remain longer than 1801. In July of that year she returned to Berlin and received the honor of being chosen a member of the Academy. Orders for portraits were not wanting, but her short stay made it impossible to undertake them. Passing through Dresden she returned to the native land for which her heart had ever pined, arriving in safety at Paris in the winter of the same year. The misfortunes of the Bourbons had filled her breast with sympathizing grief wherever the news had reached her. She remained true to them through all reverses, living to witness both the restoration and second and final exile of that royal line. This loyal feeling manifested itself even in her relations to the imperial family, when they were in possession of the throne.