Julie chaise longue

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Jacques-Louis David : Madame Récamier on a Récamière , 1800.
Julie Récamier's signature:
Signature Julie Récamier.PNG

Juliette or Julie Récamier , b. Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard , called Madame Récamier (born December 4, 1777 in Lyon , † May 11, 1849 in Paris ) was a French salonnière .

Life

Nicolas Jacques : Juliette Récamier

Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard was the only daughter of the notary Jean Bernard and spent her childhood and youth in affluent circumstances in Lyon. For a few years she lived in the girls' convent La Déserte, where she received her education. Then she accompanied her mother to Paris and received instruction in the art of singing, as well as playing the piano and playing the harp . As a 12-year-old girl, she was a guest with her mother at one of the last receptions held by the royal family in Versailles and was applauded by Queen Marie Antoinette for her grace.

On April 24, 1793, at the age of 15, she married the wealthy and much older banker Jacques-Rose Récamier (1751-1830), who was friends with her parents . This marriage is said to have been purely platonic in nature . In her day, Madame Récamier was considered an extraordinary beauty. She also had a witty and amiable personality and, from the early days of the consulate, had maintained a parlor in Paris which was an important meeting place for upper society, but also for critics and political opponents of Napoleon . Among the visitors were Madame de Staël , who was a close friend of Madame Récamier, Benjamin Constant , François-René de Chateaubriand and the generals Jean-Victor Moreau and Bernadotte . The latter was active as a general of the revolutionary troops and various administrative tasks and later, only years after his salon visits, fought as the Swedish Crown Prince on the side of the Allies against Napoleon. She also maintained extensive correspondence with important personalities.

Madame Récamier's refusal to become lady-in-waiting to Empress Joséphine , as well as her connections with royalists and anti-Bonapartist figures, made her politically suspect. Napoleon closed her salon in 1803 because of treasonous activities. Her husband suffered severe financial losses in 1805. Invited by Madame de Staël to Coppet , Switzerland, she won the affection of Prince August of Prussia . The plan arose to divorce her husband so that she could marry the prince. She gave him a marriage promise in 1807, but later withdrew it, although her husband agreed to the divorce. Instead, she kept the marriage going.

Napoleon banished Madame Récamier from Paris in 1811 because of her anti-government sentiments. She lived first in Châlons-sur-Marne , then in Lyon, traveled to Italy in March 1813 and took up quarters in Rome . Finally, in December 1813, she was invited to Naples by Joachim Murat and his wife and maintained extremely good relations with them. After Napoleon's fall in April 1814 and the Restoration of the Bourbons , she returned to Paris and reopened her salon. She convinced Benjamin Constant to represent Murat's claims in a memorandum addressed to the Congress of Vienna .

After the second bankruptcy of her husband in 1819, Madame Récamier separated from him and withdrew with her niece to the Abbaye-aux-Bois , a women's monastery located near Paris. There, too, she gave receptions again and was particularly frequented by Chateaubriand.

Burial place of Madame Récamier (and four other relatives), Cimetière de Montmartre (2009)

Juliette Récamier was painted by important artists, a. a. by François Gérard and Jacques-Louis David , who painted her on a Récamière , a piece of furniture named after her in the style of a sofa. She died of cholera in 1849 at the age of 71 . She was buried in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris.

Her niece and adopted daughter, Madame Lenormant, published Souvenirs et correspondance tirés de papiers de Madame Récamier (2 volumes, Paris 1859; 4th edition 1875).

literature

Web links

Commons : Juliette Récamier  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Chaise longue, Julie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Récamier, Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde; Bernard, Julie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French salon lady
DATE OF BIRTH December 4, 1777
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1849
Place of death Paris