Madame Récamier

In his days Chinard was the most distinguished sculptor working outside the capital, and Lyon provided him with many of his sitters, including Madame R�camier. Although Chinard produced some attractive, Clodion-style terracottas, and also more patently neoclassical, sternly republican sculpture, he remains most remarkable for his portrait busts. At their finest these rival Houdon’s in realistic vitality, and in addition have a poetic refinement which is Chinard’s own. He could respond to a wide range of character, but he was at his best with female sitters, where, without flattery, he cold suggest a certain mystery, even reserve, beneath a a charming exterior. His Madame R�camier is certainly the masterpiece of those.