19th century, Bust of Juliette Récamier

early nineteenth century

Bust of Juliette Récamier

Alabaster, 42 x 23 x 11 cm

The sculpture represents the bust of Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard, better known as Juliette Récamier or Madame Récamier (Lyon, 3 December 1777 – Paris, 11 May 1849), famous French salonist in the era of the Directory and the First Empire. Juliette's family belonged to the Lyon bourgeoisie: her father, Jean Bernard, was a royal notable. Appointed director of finance, he moved to Paris with his family in 1786. Juliette's mother, however, an heiress with a rich dowry, was a worldly and intelligent woman. Madame Récamier's living room soon became the meeting place of an elite society, but did not fail to involve the highest echelons of power. Juliette's extraordinary beauty and charm earned her a large crowd of admirers. The refined lady was among the first to adopt the "Greek taste" in clothing - very simple semi-transparent muslin dresses - and she played a significant role in the diffusion of the taste for antiquity, later known as the Empire Style. She was a friend of Madame de Staël and then, under the Empire, a friend and companion of Chateaubriand, she was a key figure in the opposition to Napoleon Bonaparte's regime, thanks to her cultural salon which was a political and intellectual centre. Because of her positions, she ended up being exiled from Paris. After staying from September 1811 to June 1812 in Châlons-en-Champagne and then in Lyon, she visited Italy. She was able to return to the French capital only after the fall of the Empire in 1815, where she continued to receive the most important celebrities of the time.

Juliette is portrayed timidly lowering her gaze and holding a veil across her chest with both hands, covering her breasts, in a gesture of great modesty and confidentiality. A small smile from her hovers on her lips and her wavy hair is held back by a headband in a high updo. The work derives from the model created by the French sculptor Joseph Chinard (Lyon, 12 February 1756 – 20 June 1813). After receiving his initial training in Lyon, as a painter at the École Royale de Dessin and as a sculptor in a local workshop, Chinard made a trip to Rome between 1784-87, where he won a prize from the Accademia di San Luca with the Perseus and Andromeda sculpture in terracotta. Instead, he created the marble by Juliette Récamier, now preserved in Lyon at the Musée des Beaux Arts, during his stay in Paris between 1801 and 1802. There is also a terracotta version of the work, now preserved at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles . Chinard's works can in fact be admired today in the most important museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, in addition to the two institutions mentioned above.

The object is in good condition

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