Madame Récamier face swap

Where this one comes from

Juliette Récamier sat for Jacques-Louis David in 1800 and lost patience with how slowly he worked, so she went to François Gérard, his former pupil, and had this one painted instead. David abandoned his canvas in annoyance and it hangs unfinished in the Louvre to this day. She was a banker’s wife whose salon drew everyone in Paris, which is why Napoleon eventually exiled her from the city. Gérard’s version is in the Carnavalet.

What is in the picture

A white muslin dress of the kind the Directory made compulsory, gathered high under the bust, with a yellow shawl slipping off one arm and a couch behind. The hair is short, dark and curled forward in the Roman manner everyone had adopted. She is turned towards the viewer with her chin slightly down, and the whole picture is pitched at a precise angle between availability and refusal, which is more or less what a salon was for.

When people use it

For elegance with a grudge attached. It suits a picture taken at an event you were nearly not invited to, and any caption about going elsewhere for better service.

How your face lands in it

A large frontal head in soft, even, shadowless light — neoclassical portraiture at its most forgiving. Nearly anything shot square to the lens will work. The short curled hair frames closely and stays put, and the finished skin in the original is smooth enough that a heavily textured photograph will be pulled towards it.

Portrait of Juliette Récamier — François Gérard, c. 1802–1805. François Gérard died in 1837, which placed the painting in the public domain long ago, and the museum released its photograph under the CC0 public domain dedication. Source

Also in: Paintings · Oil portraits