Large marble bust of Madame Récamier after Chinard

This beautiful carved marble bust is a fine copy after the original by Joseph Chinard. The subject is Madame Récamier who, during the early decades of the 19^th Century, was a famous French beauty whose salon was perhaps the most renowned in the country. Madame Récamier, not only a beauty but also an intellectual force, was a champion of Neoclassicism, and she had her portrait taken by many of the leading artists of the day—including Jacques-Louis David. It is befitting that Chinard’s 1805 masterpiece has become one of the most celebrated pieces of Neoclassical sculpture to emerge from the 19^th Century. Given this, the piece served as a popular subject for other artists to copy, and the present sculpture is a fine example of that practice.

The sculpture portrays Madame Récamier draped in a tantalisingly revealing fragment of light fabric, the folds of which are grasped by her arms before her breast. The sculpture is exceptionally sensual in feeling and accomplished in the delicacy of its execution.

The bust is raised on a veined green marble podium.