Painting #B06 - Madame Recamier

Madame Récamier
- Francois Gérard (1770-1837, French)
- oil on canvas (255 x 145 cm) in 1805
- Musée Carnavalet (Paris)

Madame Récamier (1777-1849) was a Parisian socialite, whose salon drew Parisians from the leading literary and political circles of the early 19th century. At 15, she was married to banker Récamier, 30 years more senior.

Madame Récamier
- Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825, French)
- oil on canvas (174 × 224 cm) in 1800
- Louvre (Paris)

Incomplete because she disliked this painting, but switched to David's pupil Gerard (see above)!

After the Frenh Revolution and starting the Reign of Terror, the new nobles abandoned the wigs (used to cover up balkness due to mercury treatment of syphilis) , heavy make-up (to cover up palenss probably caused by tuberculosis), and heavy garments (to pretend to have healthy bodies). 

Women adopted light and thin Ancient-Greek-style satin/silk dress to show off healthy and curvy bodies. 

Empress Josephine
- Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823, French) in 1805
- Louvre (Paris)

Wife of Emperor Napoleon

Men put on tight pants to show off their 'strong' legs.

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries
- Jacques-Louis David
- oil on canvas (204 × 125 cm) in 1812
- National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

Tight pants were not helpful to Napoleon's recovery from hemorrhoid. At Waterloo, as usual, he had to take opium to relieve the pain in his ass, and then take a nap, during which a general of his, too anxious to win, charged the French Royal Guards up the slope, beyond which a death trap was waiting. The French then had no reserve to deal with the Prussians returning to Waterloo.

Napoleon took flight to France, leaving his defeated armies behind at Waterloo, as he did in Egypt, and again in Russia.