31. Jacques Louis David. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743 – 1794) and His Wife, née Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze (1758 – 1836), 1788. Oil on canvas, 102 1⁄4 x 76 5⁄8 in. (259.7 x 194.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, in honor of Everett Fahy, 1977 (1977.10)
Despite his apparent ambivalence toward the genre, in 1804 Gérard cited his portrait of a “Polish lady” as “decidedly my best painting.”69 He must have been referring to his portrait of Katarzyna Starze´nska (fig. 35), a Polish countess who captivated Parisian society soon after she arrived in the city in 1803.70 As a guest in the salon of Juliette Récamier, Katarzyna, or “la belle Gabrielle,” as she was called, was renowned for her beauty and temperament as well as her fortune (rumors of which were exaggerated). Her close friendship with Madame Récamier caused something of a sensation. She embarked on an adulterous affair with Eugène de Beauharnais, the son of Josephine Bonaparte, and the two scandalized Paris with their open relationship. 33