My Kid Could Paint That

Jacques-Louis David, Madame Recamier, 1800

By EMMA SHAPIRO

Jacques-Louis David used many of his paintings as political weapons, and he also had an active political career within the art world. Although he continuously opposed the Academy he still prepared for the salons hoping for his pieces to gain entry. He participated in the attempted disestablishment of the Academy and when it completely disintegrated David became an inaugural member of the Institut de France. Following the abolition of the Academy and the Prix de Rome, David felt like there needed to be some way of rewarding French students with exceptional merit. He worked on assembling a jury and soon after his pupil won the prize for painting. Although most of David's paintings attacked politics, he was an avid participator in the political arts.

The portrait of Madame Recamier appears to be a simple portrait, yet it still contains some political ideas. Not as majorly as some of his other works, such as The Death of Marat, but they are still ever present. The idea arising in this painting is that of feminine elegance. The layout of the painting differs from that of a traditional portrait style canvas. The room seems almost completely bare except for the sofa, stool, and candelbra. Madame Recamier's face appears from a distance because David wished to extenuate the "elegant arabesque" of Recamier's body.

The technique exhibited differs from that of later David paintings, with more vibrant brushstrokes rather than his later translucent colors. Madame Recamier wears only a light, white, antique-style dress, and no shoes and sits in an almost completely empty room. This usage of neoclassical ideas had been avant-garde for the 1800s. David's Madame Recamier remains unfinished, but why remains a mystery. While David painted it, Madame Recamier commissioned one of David's pupils to paint another portrait instead of David because she thought David took too long. David insisted on keeping the painting but it sat in his studio incomplete, publicly unseen until it went to the Louvre in 1826.

Jacques-Louis David, Madame Récamier, 1800

Madame Juliette Récamier, the jewel of high society, was the Gatsby of her time. She threw parties that no one could deny an invitation to and had an entourage of only the most important men,  including Lucien Bonaparte and, later, the Prince August of Prussia - each a good friend for a 23-year-old socialite to have. Surrounded by adorers of both her beauty and wealth, Juliette got a bit of a big head. She commissioned a portrait from only the most famous painter of the time: David. Even though he found it a "lesser genre," he was damn good at it, and Madame Récamier was not one to be denied.

Then the story gets a bit blurry. There are theories about why this piece, one to immortalize Juliette in her prime, was never completed. They range from slowness of completion to actual criticisms from Juliette as to the resemblance. All that's actually known is that David said, "Madame, women have their caprices; artists have theirs too. Allow me to pander to mine; I shall keep your portrait as it stands." Ouch.

To add insult to injury, Madame Récamier commissioned another artist, François Gérard, to paint her instead. Completed in 1805, his piece (shown below) is dramatically different than David's. Knowing the drama surrounding David's work, it is easy to see the little signs of his disdain for her. Specifically the giant bald spot he left, immortalized forever just like she wanted. David's piece has a sickly palette with minimal furniture, the only distinct piece being the chaise lounge Juliette sits stiffly upon. Unlike most other portraits, David creates significant distance between his subject and the viewer. Her bald spot takes up all of the attention anyway. Gérard's piece is brighter and warmer, with much more movement in the clothing and a much tighter focus on the beautiful Madame Récamier. She looks like a completely different person. Maybe David just showed a different side of the socialite that she didn't want everyone to see.

François Gérard, Portrait of Madame Récamier, 1805

Portrait of a Woman Scorned
The Fairer Sex Treated Not-So Fairly
Curated by Katherine Anderson

Madame Recamier, David, 1800.

Under a facade of white wraps and virginal beauty comes the story of Madame Recamier - the headstrong dame caught up in the downfall of her royalist family. At a young age, Recamier's father forced her to marry a man of his age in the interest of saving the family money after the French Revolution. But this hardly resolved the issue. When her beau lost the money with the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, the family name was the only remnant of glory. But this hardly put Recamier in a position of glory. After avoiding demands to serve as a lady in waiting for the new elite, Madame Recamier and her now-elderly husband were expelled from France by Napoleon himself. After her husband's continuous refusal to allow her to marry again for money, Recamier returned to France and hid away in a convent until her death from cholera.

Though her family's royalist ties and dwindling bank accounts quickly made Madame Recamier a pariah in France, it was her virginal appearance that ultimately excluded her from prominent socialite circles. Rumors flourished about Recamier's suspicious marriage to a much older man, including that she was allergic to sexual encounters or that she was infertile. Thus, when David chose to paint Madame Recamier in 1800 (despite the family's commission of another artist), her angelic attire and awkwardly positioned body displayed this quality. Though many women of the time used portraits to confirm their status, many viewed Recamier's as a disgrace to biology and her family, for she was now clearly portrayed as a completely unsexualized being. The position outcome? The style of seat upon which Recamier lays in David's painting was quickly renamed as "the Recamier."