Juliette Récamier, the combination of charm, beauty, and the mind
Expertissim presents a bronze bust of Juliette Récamier after Antoine Denis Chaudet. French sculptor and painter of Neoclassic style, Antoine Denis Chaudet (1743-1810) realized portraits of the most illustrious personalities of the French Empire such as a bust of Lamoignon de Malesherbes in the Louvre collection. In 1810, his statue of crowned Emperor Napoleon I on a column along the Grand Army was erected on Place Vendome (replaced in 1863 with a sculpture by Auguste Dumont).
However who is this Juliette Récamier represented as a ancient goddess who served as an inspiration to the greatest artists of the French Empire? Small portrait of a beauty from Lyon who lived her glory in Paris ...
Juliette Récamier , a woman of her time
Juliette Récamier did not produce either sculptures, paintings, novels or poetry; nonetheless she was one of the the most famous woman and the subject of many representations during the 19th century. Juliette Récamier , nicknamed the “Merveilleuse du Directoire” (Wonder of the French Directory) was born in 1777 in Lyon. Her father Jean Bernard was a royal notary. He was appointed to Finance Receiver in 1786 and his rising middle class family settled in Paris. In 1793, filled with terror, Juliette aged sixteen was married to a friend of her parents, the rich Parisian banker Monsieur Récamier. It was a union of pure convenience and friendship and the marriage was apparently never consummated. Françoise Wagener, Récamier’s biographer, speculated that Mr. Récamier was her natural father who had married her to allow her to inherit his great wealth and rank. This secret of virtue was universally recognized.
Recognized and admired throughout Europe for her beauty and virtue, Juliette Récamier was also intelligent, cultured and full of sweetness. She danced beautifully, sang, played the harp and piano. As a woman of thoughtful spirit, Juliet received writers, artists and famous scientists at her residence at the beginning of the 19th century. Her salon quickly became one of the most prominent of the capital and remained so until her death. Among the regulars at her residence on Rue Mont Blanc were Madame de Staël, her best friend, Chateaubriand, her only love but also Lucien Bonaparte, Adolphe Thiers, Prosper Mérimée, François Arago, Victor Hugo, Alfonse de Lamartine and many others. Madame Récamier took advantage of the upheavals from the Revolution that have allowed women to gain some equality or at least a real place in Parisian society. She learned to use her charms to be watched, admired and appreciated by both men, who vowed a passionate love for women, and who sought their friendship.
Madame Récamier’s salon was crucial in the intellectual and artistic life of the time but also in politics. Juliette quickly took the role as a key figure in the opposition to the Napoleonic regime.
Juliette Récamier and the French Empire
In 1800, Juliette Récamier during the height of her fame, her husband became Regent of the Banque de France. David realized her portrait. She then met Madame de Staël and bonded a symbiotic friendship. And her salon was the most fashionable of the French Consulate. However, the salon of Madame Récamier incurred Napoleon’s wrath and quickly became the place of conspiracies and criticism of his politics. In 1803, her friend the writer Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) was sentenced to exile for her fight for women’s rights. The same year, an official
order by Napoleon prohibited receptions at Madame Récamier’s salon for he saw the it as a venue for opponents of his rule. In 1805, Mr. Récamier’s bank went bankrupt and the couple were on the brink of ruin. Juliette refused a place as Dame d’honneur (lady of honor) with Napoleon’s Court who became Emperor. In 1810 Juliette raised once again Napoleon’s anger by supporting General Moreau at his trial and attempting to lift the ban on the publication of Madame de Staël’s book De l’Allemagne (From Germany). In 1811 Juliette Récamier was ordered into exile forty miles from Paris. She then settled in Chalons-sur-Marne with her niece Amélie and travelled throughout Europe.
Juliette returned to Paris after the fall of Napoleon and her salon became a center of Parisian social life. It oriented increasingly towards a literary dimension with Chateaubriand’s presence who became her lover. Juliette Récamier still continued to defend her convictions and in 1827 supported the independence struggle of the Greeks and the fight against the death penalty.
Juliette Récamier muse and patron
Juliette Récamier was the personality probably the most represented in the 19th century, so much so that the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon dedicated an exhibition in 2009. Throughout her life she commissioned works by the most prestigious artists such as Joseph Chinard, David, Ingres, Dejuinne, Massot, and Canova who always portrayed her image as the ideal woman. Historians often regard her as the first star in the modern acceptance of the term. Juliette was able to master and leverage her image in all media, carefully cultivating her iconic status. She even appeared in the first women's fashion magazines. Juliette was never satisfied by any of his portraits and had maintained an ambiguous relationship with her image. Her niece Amélie Lenormant described the encounter between Canova and Juliette in Rome, 1813 as saying that Canova had sculpted a clay bust of a young woman veiled in Juliette’s guise. She failed to conceal her feelings. Finally, Canova added a crown of olive leaves to render his famous sculpture of Dante's Beatrice.
Aside from serving as a muse, Juliette was also an art collector for she felt artworks should be sentimental and as a way to remember friends and give gifts. She had many portraits of Madame de Staël and commissioned a bas relief by Thorwalsden illustrating a page from Les Martyrs by her lover Chateaubriand.
Juliette Récamier was also the first to decorate interiors with Etruscan furniture and Greek-inspired clothes. Thus developing a taste for antiquity that was to prevail during the Empire.
In 1950, the Surrealist Magritte made a final tribute with his oil painting “Madame Récamier by David” now in a private collection.
Marion Sailhen (studying at IESA).
