Madame Recamier

“Madame Recamier” Marble bust after Houdon c1880 (height 470)

Jean Antoine Houdon was born in Versailles in 1741, dying in Paris in 1828. As son of the caretaker to the Louvre ‘École des Élèves Protégés’ he roamed the studios of the master sculptors, and from the age of nine, according to his memoir, he was already sculpting, having benefited from the advice of various artists before he even set foot in the École de l’Académie. He entered Slodtz’s studio at a very young age and won a Third Medal in 1756 for the Prix de Rome, alongside Clodion. He won outright in 1761, but did not leave for Rome until 1764. Approved by the Académie in 1771, Houdon became a full Member in 1777 and obtained a chair in 1778. In 1796 he was a Member of the Institut (Français), recently created to bring all the Académies under one single body, and taught at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1805. After producing several busts and statues of Napoleon, Houdon received the Légion d’Honneur in 1809. He featured regularly at the Paris Salon from the moment he became a Member of the Académie in 1777 and exhibited until 1814.

Madame Récamier was a celebrated society hostess, to whose Salon, the cream of Parisian intellectual, artistic, military and other circles regularly came. She was painted by Jacques Louis David, Baron Gerard and sculpted by Houdon.