3688 x 4958 px | 31,2 x 42 cm | 12,3 x 16,5 inches | 300dpi
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Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard Récamier (4 December 1777 - 11 May 1849) was a Frenchwoman who was a leader of the literary and political circles of the early 19th century. Born in Lyon, France, and known as Juliette, she was married at fifteen to Jacques Récamier (d. 1830), a rich banker more than thirty years her senior. It is believed that he was in fact her natural father who married her to make her his heir. Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David (1800, Louvre)Beautiful, accomplished, and with a real love for literature, she possessed at the same time a temperament which protected her from scandal, and from the early days of the French Consulate to almost the end of the July Monarchy, her salon in Paris was one of the chief resorts of literary and political society that pretended to fashion. The habitués of her house included many former royalists, with others, such as General Bernadotte and General Moreau, more or less disaffected to the government. This circumstance, together with her refusal to act as lady-in-waiting to Empress consort Joséphine de Beauharnais and her friendship for Germaine de Staël, brought her under suspicion. In 1800 Jacques-Louis David began his portrait of her, but left it unfinished on learning François Gérard had been commissioned to paint a portrait before he had (shown right) - Gerard's was completed in 1802. It was through Mme de Staël that Mme Récamier became acquainted with Benjamin Constant, whose singular political tergiversations during the last days of the Empire and the first of the Restoration have been attributed to her persuasions. Mme Récamier was eventually exiled from Paris by the orders of Napoleon I. After a short stay at her native Lyon, she proceeded to Rome, and finally to Naples. There Mme de Récamier was on exceedingly good terms with Joachim Murat and his wife Caroline Bonaparte, who were then intriguing with the Bourbons.
