Madame Récamier
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Madame Récamier
Jacques-Louis David
Juliette Récamier was 23 years old when she commissioned this portrait from Jacques-Louis David. Despite her young age, she was already an influential figure. She had married the new governor of the Bank of France and hosted a successful salon frequented by French and foreign writers and socialites. Above all, she was a trendsetter in terms of fashion and design, being one of the first to wear Grecian-style gowns and display Etruscan-style furniture in her home, boosting the taste for all things classical that became so popular during the Empire. You can see some of her furniture in Rooms 557–558 at the Louvre [ou simplement lien]. David’s portrait shows her as more than just a woman of fashion: the almost empty room focuses attention on her as an ideal of feminine elegance – like a photo shoot for a fashion magazine.
Don’t hurry an artist!
Impatient of waiting for her portrait, Madame Récamier asked one of David’s pupils to paint it instead! The annoyed painter reportedly said to his model, ‘Women have their whims, and so do artists; allow me to satisfy mine by keeping this portrait’. He never finished the painting and kept it in his studio for a long time... but its unfinished state is part of its enduring appeal and one of the reasons it is seen as a masterpiece.
