18 September 2016

Cimetière de Montmartre (continued): #2: Juliette Récamier



Juliette Récamier (1777–1849) (née Bernard) was born and grew up in Lyon and married the banker Jacques-Rose Récamier in Paris in 1793. The marriage was platonic, and indeed Jacques-Rose may well have been her real father. She became a friend of Madame de Staël, was against Napoléon, and Juliette's salon had an important role in the political and intellectual life of the time. Following an exile of about three years (1811–14) she returned and continued her salon in political neutrality. Often accompanied by Chateaubriand, over the years she received such young writers as Lamartine, Sainte-Beuve and Balzac.

Many paintings were made of her, including the one above, which shows a detail from a work by François Gérard.

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