Madame Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1761–1835) ca. 1804 baron François Gérard French Gérard, a student of David, was official painter to Empress Joséphine; the sitter was a celebrated beauty, captured in Vigée Lebrun’s youthful portrait from 1783, also at The Met. In 1802, her affair with the statesman Talleyrand was sufficiently scandalous that Napoleon demanded they marry; neither was particularly faithful, however, and, by the time this portrait was painted two years later, they had separated. Thus, this is not a pendant to The Met’s two portraits of Talleyrand. Gérard’s brush re

Madame Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1761–1835) ca. 1804 baron François Gérard French Gérard, a student of David, was official painter to Empress Joséphine; the sitter was a celebrated beauty, captured in Vigée Lebrun’s youthful portrait from 1783, also at The Met. In 1802, her affair with the statesman Talleyrand was sufficiently scandalous that Napoleon demanded they marry; neither was particularly faithful, however, and, by the time this portrait was painted two years later, they had separated. Thus, this is not a pendant to The Met’s two portraits of Talleyrand. Gérard’s brush revels in details of the highly fashionable interior: contrasting sun and fire light from the novel chimney installed beneath a window, the diaphanous dress, and the paisley shawl—a modish accessory, but also a nod to the sitter’s birth near Pondicherry, in colonial Madame Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1761–1835). baron François Gérard (French, Rome 1770–1837 Paris). ca. 1804. Oil on canvas. Paintings

How we Work

Contribute

Legal

Contact Us