Portrait de Juliette Récamier

1800

Oil on canvas, 68 1/2 × 96 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris

The antique style moves from history painting into a private portrait: the sitter poses on a daybed of ancient design.

Look at

The long low daybed and her reclining body run almost the full width of the canvas.
The white dress is the lightest shape on the canvas, set off by the yellow daybed and the grey-brown wall.
The background is loosely brushed and unfinished, while the face and dress are carried further.

The sitter and her husband ordered it in spring 1800; it remained in the artist's hands until he died.
Sold in the 1826 sale of his estate as a sketched portrait; in the Louvre from 1827.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain