Portrait of Madame Récamier
1800 · Oil on canvas · Musée du Louvre, Paris
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About this work
- Artist
- Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825)
- Year
- 1800
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 174 × 244 cm
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Movement
- Neoclassicism
Juliette Récamier, the celebrated hostess of the Directory, reclines barefoot on a Pompeian-style daybed in a plain white dress, looking back over her shoulder at the viewer across an almost empty room furnished with a single bronze lamp stand. She was twenty-three when David began the portrait in 1800; the sittings dragged, she grew impatient and commissioned a rival portrait from his pupil Gérard, and David, offended, put the canvas aside unfinished. The thin paint, the bare floor and the long diagonal of the sofa were the result, and the picture is now prized precisely for its restraint. The daybed itself became known as a récamier. The painting stayed in David's studio until his death and was bought for the Louvre in 1826.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A young woman in white reclining on a pale daybed in an empty grey room, a calm, spare composition for a bedroom, living room or dressing room at 32×24 in natural wood. Warm white, stone or soft grey walls keep its quiet; pair it with La Grande Odalisque.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Neoclassicism painting
- Era
- 18th century (1800)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- living room, bedroom, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 32×24. Prints at 16×12, 24×18, 32×24 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 above a console or sideboard; 32×24 as the statement piece above a sofa or headboard.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — natural wood flatters the lighter palette; black sharpens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Portrait of Madame Récamier in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Portrait of Madame Récamier painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
