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Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier (Portrait artist unknown)

Madame Recamier was a celebrated French Beauty, considered by many as the most beautiful and graceful woman of her day. Because of the brilliancy of her conversation, manners and the charm of her person she made her home a haven for men of education and genius.

Jeanne Francoise Julie Adelaide Recamier, usually known as Juliette, was born in Lyons on December 3, 1777. Not much is known about her youth, but she was the daughter of a banker named Bernard, with whom she eventually moved to Paris. At the young age of fifteen, Juliette married Jacques Recamier, a wealthy banker much older than herself. In fact, he was three times her own age.

Her home was a place of rest for great men of her day. She was a hostess of great wit and beauty and her salon attracted prominent literary of political figures. To be invited to her house, one was assured of plenty of food and good company. To be invited to her salon meant you were somebody and that you would be rubbing shoulders with the great men of the day. Under the rule of the French directory and during the consulate and empire her salon was constantly visited by such distinguished people as Lucien Bonaparte, Moreau, Bernadotte, La Harpe, Benjamin Constant, and David. Her distinguishing traits were an extreme sweetness of disposition and tenderness of heart, which obtained her the affection of all who knew her. It should be noted that she was quite unspoiled by the homage that she was paid because of her extraordinary beauty. Because of her temperament, there was never a scandal about all the men who were guests in her home.

Because her husband was financially ruined by Napoleon’s policies, the salon of Madame Recamier took on a form of opposition to the government and was eventually compelled by Napoleon to leave Paris . She resided for some time at Lyons, then with the celebrated Madame de Stael at Coppet, which featured her in her novel “Corinne”. It was here that she met Prince August of Prussia who wanted to marry her, if her husband would consent to a divorce. He did consent, but Juliette would not desert him in his time of adversity.

She then went to Italy and did not again enter France until the fall of Napoleon, when she returned to Paris and reopened her salon. Because of further financial setbacks in 1819, Juliette moved to a suite in the Abbaye-aux-Bois near Paris , but her house nevertheless continued to be the resort of eminent mend, among whom was the writer and statesman Vicomte Francois de Chateaubriand, who was her devoted admirer. Though she was not an author and wrote nothing herself, through her connections, including her friendship with Madame de Stael, she exercised considerable influence upon French literature.

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Jean-Antoine Houdon (March 20, 1741 – July 15, 1828) was a French neoclassical sculptor. Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment. Houdon's subjects include Denis Diderot (1771), Benjamin Franklin (1778-09), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1778), Voltaire (1781), Molière (1781), George Washington (1785-88), Thomas Jefferson (1789), Louis XVI (1790), Robert Fulton, 1803-04, and Napoléon Bonaparte (1806).

Born in Versailles, Houdon won the Prix de Rome in 1761 but was not greatly influenced by ancient and Renaissance art in Rome. His stay in the city is marked by two characteristic and important productions: the superb Ecorché (1767), an anatomical model which has served as a guide to all artists since his day, and the statue of Saint Bruno in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome. After ten years stay in Italy, Houdon returned to Paris.

Houdon's portrait sculpture of Washington was the result of a specific invitation by Benjamin Franklin to cross the Atlantic specifically to visit Mount Vernon, so that Washington could model for him. Washington sat for wet clay life models and a plaster life mask in 1785. These models served for many commissions of Washington, including the standing figure commissioned by the Legislature of Virginia, and located in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Numerous variations of the Washington bust were produced, portraying him variously as a general in uniform, in the classical manner showing chest musculature, and as Roman Consul Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus clad in a toga. A cast of the latter is located in the Vermont State House.

Houdon became a member of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in 1771, and a professor in 1778. Perceived as bourgeois for his connections to the court of Louis XVI, he fell out of favor during the French Revolution, although he escaped imprisonment. Houdon returned to favor during the French Consulate and Empire, being taken on as one of the original artistic team for what became the Column of the Grande Armée at Wimille.

Houdon died in Paris and was interred at the Cimetière du Montparnasse.

He was a member of the masonic lodge Les Neuf Sœurs.

References: Poulet, Ann L. "Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment." University of Chicago Press: 2003. ISBN 0-226-67647-1.

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Side Notes: An identical Terracotta bust of Madame Récamier by Joseph Chinard (1801-1802) sold at Sotheby's New York, Sale Number N07759 on 24 January 2002 for $522,750 USD. Please click here to view

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