Juliette Récamier
Her portrait by David is one of the most iconic paintings in the Louvre’s entire collection, and attracts millions of viewers each year. As she reclines on her sofa, a sofa she popularized so much that it now bears her name, she teases us with her curly hair, rosy cheeks, and inscrutable smile. Though her image has been reproduced in countless mediums across the globe, few know that she was one of the most remarkable women of the nineteenth century, and inspired the greatest artists, writers, intellects, and politicians of her day, with not only her unrivaled beauty but with the goodness of her heart.
Listen to ArtMuse’s episode on Madame Juliette Récamier, a French socialite and famed beauty, affectionately dubbed the “darling of Europe”. In fact, her looks were so enchanting, that she drove some of the most powerful men of all of history wild with desire, including Napoleon Bonaparte, his brother Lucien, and the Prince of Prussia.
Listen to ArtMuse’s two part episode on Juliette Récamier:
This episode is produced by Kula Production Company.
REFERENCES
Higonnet, Anne. Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution. W.W. Norton & Company, 2024.
Hillman, Susanne. “Gilt by association: The collaborative celebrity of Germaine de Staël and Juliette Récamier.” Journal of Women’s History, vol. 30, no. 1, 2018, pp. 56–79.
WILLIAMS, H. NOEL. Madame Recamier: And Her Friends. FORGOTTEN BOOKS, 2018.
Wolfgang, Aurora. “A passion between women: The case of Germaine de Staël and Juliette Récamier.” Women in French Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, 1999, pp. 66–78.
IMAGES
Jacques-Louis David, Madame Récamier, 1800.
Juliette’s bed, now at the Louvre.
François-Xavier Fabre, Lucien Bonaparte, 1808.
Portrait of Napoleon from around the time he showed interest in Juliette.
Marie Éléonore Godefroid, Portrait of Germaine de Staël, 1813.
Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin,
Portrait of Madame Récamier, 1801.
Eulalie Morin, Portrait de Juliette Récamier, 1798.
Richard Cosway, Juliette Récamier, 1801.
François Gérard, Portrait of Juliette Récamier, 1802.
Joseph Chinard, Bust of Julie Récamier, 1805.
Jean-Baptiste Isabey, Prince Augustus of Prussia, 1814.
Firmin Massot, Portrait of Juliette Récamier, 1807.
Antonio Canova, Tête idéale (portrait of Juliette), 1819.
Wladimir Lukitsch Borowikowski, Portrait of Germaine de Staël, 1812.
Roche, Portrait of Benjamin Constant, 1820.
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Portrait of François-René de Chateaubriand, 1809.
The Abbaye-aux-Bois in 1906.
François-Louis Dejuinne's 1826 rendering of Juliette Récamier in her fourth-floor chambers at Abbaye-aux-Bois.
Francois Gérard, Corinne au Cap Misène, the portrait of Germaine de Staël that Juliette had in her living room at the Abbaye.
Portrait of Amélie Cyvoct Lenormant, Juliette’s niece, who she adopted as her daughter and wrote her first biography after Juliette’s death.
A German poster for one of the silent films made about Juliette in the 1920’s.
