Portrait of a boy, bust-length

Elizabeth-Louise-Vigée Lebrun left France at the dawn of the Revolution and traveled all over Europe during the eleven years of her self inflicted exile. She first took refuge in Italy, then went to Vienna (1793-5) before settling in Saint Petersburg (1795-1801). She kept a diary where she recorded impressions of cities, courts, countryside, and people. She published it in Paris years later as her Souvenirs.
Her stay in Dresden in 1801 on her way back to Paris was brief and followed a new sojourn in Berlin. While in these two German cities, she seems to have favored pastel over oil painting, probably because it needed less preparation, material, and space. Sadly, her Souvenirs do not identify the sitter of this charming portrait of a boy smiling at the viewer.