Portrait of Madame Tallien
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Object Label
Jean-Bernard Duvivier emphasized the status of his fashionable sitter with a careful rendering of her furnishings and accessories, including velvet cushions and draperies, an inlaid wood settee, and a rare paisley cashmere shawl. Madame Tallien directly experienced the dramatic events of 1789 to 1804, during the French Revolution and its aftermath. She urged her second husband—Jean-Lambert Tallien, a rising political star—to end the Reign of Terror, the Revolution’s bloodiest episode.
Caption
Jean-Bernard Duvivier Belgian, 1762–1837. Portrait of Madame Tallien, 1806. Oil on canvas, 49 1/2 x 36 3/4 in. (125.7 x 93.3 cm) Frame: 57 x 44 1/4 x 3 3/4 in. (144.8 x 112.4 x 9.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Healy Purchase Fund B, 1989.28. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1989.28_SL3.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Portrait of Madame Tallien
Date
1806
Geography
Place made: Europe
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
49 1/2 x 36 3/4 in. (125.7 x 93.3 cm) Frame: 57 x 44 1/4 x 3 3/4 in. (144.8 x 112.4 x 9.5 cm)
Signatures
Signed and dated lower left: "J.B. Duvivier/1806"
Credit Line
Healy Purchase Fund B
Accession Number
1989.28
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
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Frequent Art Questions
What can you tell me about this painting?
The woman who is the subject of the painting, Madame Tallien, lived during the French Revolution and witnessed the new republic and empire of France. She is painted here in the style of dress that she helped make famous-the scandalous empire-waist.Was that not typical in this era?By the time the work was painted in 1806, it would have been a more typical style however, in the 1790s when it was first coming to fashion, it was considered scandalous.I like this work! Why is the model holding pearls?
We don't have any information about the specific piece of jewelry Madame Tallien is holding, but pearls are a material that has long been loaded with symbolism in Western art. According the the Victoria and Albert Museum's 2014 exhibition on pearls: As rare and delicate luxury items, pearls have been a symbol of wealth and status since antiquity. In medieval Europe, for example, they appeared both a symbols of authority on royal regalia, and as attributes of Christ and the Virgin Mary, thus symbolizing purity and chastity. By the 18th century pearl jewelry demonstrated high social rank and tended to be worn in a seductive manner, while in the early-19th century (when this picture was painted) more intimate pearl ornaments (like the one shown here) conveyed personal messages of love or grief.This portrait is intended to show the elite status of the newly-wed Princess of Chimay (formerly Madame Tallien) and possibly to clean up her reputation (since she was a divorcee on her third marriage!) The pearls' traditional symbolism helps with both these goals.Showing Madame Tallien holding a delicate string of pearls may also have given the artist an opportunity to show off his skill painting her elegant hands.What causes the spiral-shape in this painting's craquelure? It's a little difficult to capture in a photograph, but the painting has periodic spiral shapes (the 2 on her left shoulder are especially prominent) and I am wondering what they are. I am an art student and have never seen patterning like this.
In general, craquelure is caused by the shrinking and expanding of the medium over time, due to changes in temperature and humidity. Also, the tension of the canvas shifts over time, tightening and loosening.All the cracking on this piece is the result of mechanical damage. The straight cracks at the corners are due to the tension of the canvas at the stretcher or strainer. There are also regular horizontal cracks across the surface which might indicate that the canvas was at one time rolled. The spiral and circular cracks are the result of pressure or a blow. The impact on the canvas does not have to be strong to cause such cracks. The cracking would not necessarily be immediately visible, but would show up over time. A preventive measure, to reduce the likelihood of impact on the back of the canvas is to secure a fitted backboard to the strainer or stretcher which receives the impact rather than the canvas.The label for the Portrait of Madame Tallien says that the Paisley scarf is 'rare'. Do you know if Paisley was expensive/new/exotic at that time?
The cashmere shawl thrown over the sofa was indeed an exotic, extremely expensive and rare accessory in the period.An extraordinarily light-weight yet warm hand-woven textile, it was imported from the Kashmir region of India.Thanks! Do you know why it was called Paisley?Paisley is an English term for the buta (or boteh) design, a droplet-shaped vegetable motif of Persian origin.The term paisley is actually taken from the town of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland, whose weavers became the foremost producers of these shawls after about 1800.The cashmere shawl, with its defining paisley design, was first brought to Europe by the British East India Company in the early 18th century, but by the 19th century there were various schemes to import the cashmere producing goats to Europe and make imitation cashmere shawls there.But few of these were successful, so it remained a rare and expensive itemIn France (where this picture was painted), the cashmere shawl became popular at the end of the French Revolution when Napoleon's army returned from Egypt. (France had unsuccessfully tried to conquer Egypt specifically in order to disrupt Britain's lucrative trade with India.) Among the mementos of the Orient Napoleon's officers brought back with them were cashmere shawls, which they wore wrapped around their waists as belts like Egyptian soldiers. In Paris, the cashmere shawl was quickly transformed from war souvenir to fashion accessory.Its warmth and delicacy complimented the dresses popular at the time—they were made from light-weight semi-transparent white muslin like one you see in the picture. The shawl allowed fashionable ladies to remain decorously covered while their dresses revealed bare arms, shoulders, and cleavage.Thank you! That's super interesting and reveals a lot more about the sitter than I thought.If you're interested, that shawl also reveals something else about that sitter...Go onSince it was so fashionable in early 19th-century Paris, the cashmere shawl quickly became an essential part of a woman's "corbeille de mariage," the gift basket given by the groom to the bride upon the signing of the wedding contract. Wearing one thus indicated a woman's married status and, by extension, her proper femininity and virtue.By the time this picture was painted, Madame Tallien was a two-time divorcée on her third marriage! So that shawls carries a lot of symbolic weight as a sign of virtue.
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