You will know this week's lovely lady from the beautiful painting hanging in the Musée du Louvre by Jacques-Louis David. Juliette Récamier was a fixture of the Paris Salon scene in the 19th century and lived a very interesting life.
It all started with a rather strange story. Her mother Marie-Julie Matton came from a wealthy family and her father Jean Bernard was the notary and counsellor to the king. Growing up in Lyon, her father left for Paris to be the Postmaster General leaving Juliette and her mother in Lyon.
Marie-Julie had a weekly Salon in their home before Juliette was born that drew the most interesting people from Lyon and Paris. One night a man that frequently attended introduced himself to the teenage Juliete. Jacques-Rose Récamier was 30 years older than her and decided quickly they would be married. Hold onto your hat for the next part.
It is now thought that Jacques was actually her father. They were married on April 24, 1793, she was fifteen years old. It was 1793 and the Reign of Terror consumed Paris. Jacques was worried he would be arrested and killed and this was a way for his daughter/wife to inherit his fortune at the time. The marriage was a business deal and never consummated, leaving her a virgin until she was in her 40’s.
Surviving the Terror, they bought a home on the Rue de Mont-Blanc, now the Rue de la Chaussee d’Antin in October 1798. Decorated in the Etruscan style, one of the very first in Paris and added to the appeal of her own Salon she hosted for the literature and political society. Her weekly Salon was the place to be and attracted the elite of Paris who also wanted a glimpse inside their home.
Her beauty wasn’t lost on anyone either and was considered one of the “Three Graces” of Paris that also included Josephine Bonaparte and Madame Tallien. At a party Napoleon met her and was so enamored with her he sent her a letter and asked her to be one of Josephine’s ladies in waiting. She declined, something few people did to Napoleon which wouldn’t go over very well.
Juliette met Madame de Stael, a writer and outspoken critic of Napoleon held her own Salon as well as attending Juliette’s. The two became close friends and when word reached Napoleon of Stael’s Salons becoming a meeting of anti-Bonapartists he exiled her from Paris. Juliette was worried she would be next and left Paris before he could banisher her from the city. During this time Jacques worked for the Banque de France and was a political and financial supporter of Napoleon until he lost his job, in part by her wife’s actions. Forcing him to sell their home, silver and jewelry.
Juliette left Paris and her husband behind for Lyon and eventually Italy. In Rome and Naples she met many French artists and writers that had also fled Napoleon creating a Salon for them all to gather. In a chance of luck and a jab at Napoleon she met King Joachim Murat and his wife Caroline, who was Napoleon’s sister and became good friends. Juliette was reunited with her old friend Madame de Stael at her home in Switzerland where she would also meet Prince Augustus of Prussia. Juliette and the prince fell in love and wanted to be married. She sent her husband a letter asking for a divorce, it was a platonic relationship after all, but he refused telling her it was a bad time.
On June 1, 1814 with Napoleon out of power she returned to Paris, but not before she and the Prince promised to wait for each other. The Prince would never marry but would have eleven children with his mistress and he and Juliette would never see each other again. Upon her return she moved into an apartment in the Abbaye-aux-Bois just off the rue de Sèvres where the convent rented apartments out to the high society ladies in the capital. Juliette had fond memories of staying in the convent when she was younger when her father had left for Paris.
She began her Salons again with firm rules of no politics and only talking about the arts. At one of her Salons she met François-René Chateaubriand and became close friends and maybe more. He lived nearby at 120 Rue de Bac and would only leave his home to visit her every day. Each day from 2pm-3pm they had their own private visit before the other Salon goers arrived, seven days a week.
Juliette’s beauty never diminished and when 33 years old, Jacques-Louis David was selected to paint her portrait. Sitting for him many times, she grew bored and felt he was too slow. The relationship with the artist was rocky and when he learned that she had also agreed to sit for François Gerard he was furious. David never finished the painting and wouldn’t give it to her, keeping it until his death in his personal collection. To make matters worse she asked one of his students to paint her. The young painter depicted the beauty from behind with dirty feet and it didn’t look anything like her. It was David’s small revenge. You can now see David’s famous unfinished painting of her in the Musée du Louvre. It is hard to tell it is unfinished, but the lack of background or anything other than the model laying on her Récamier and tall candlestick. Now that you know how she felt about the process, you can see it on her face.
In most of the paintings of her, she is always reclined on a version of a chaise lounge, with raised curved ends. These are now called a Récamier in honor of it’s most famous promoter. Also in the Louvre in the Aile Richelieu far from the normal path of people is a room that includes her original bedroom furniture. The Jacob Brothers, who was THE furniture maker of the time also making many pieces for Josephine, created a lovely mahogany gilded bronze bed with matching side tables, secretary and walls covered in one of her favorite colors, purple silk.
Juliette held her Salons until the end of her life. Her sight began to go and almost completely blind her maids moved her furniture around so she was able to move through her apartment and never told anyone that she was blind. Her close friend Chateaubriand died in July 1848 and was a huge blow and she felt she would go soon after. At the time Cholera was spreading through France and was active at the Abbey. Fearing for her health she left to stay with her niece at the Palais Royal. On May 11, 1849 she couldn’t fight it and died of Cholera at 71 years old. She was buried in a rather plain tomb for such a beautiful woman in the Cemetery Montmartre.
Today the Abbey is gone but the pedestrian street that once led to it is now named after her. Venture over and sit in the hidden Square Stéphane and think about the lovely Juliette.