Houdon portrays the Comtesse du Cayla almost like a woodland creature, with leaves cascading across her chest and roses embedded in her upswept hair. The subtle veining of the marble enhances the effect of nature, as if she is pictured outdoors, dappled with sunlight. Élisabeth-Susanne de Jaucourt, Comtesse du Cayla, was twenty-two when she sat for Houdon’s portrait. It made a splash when it was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1777. Contemporaries commented that she appeared to be intoxicated. One critic wrote, admiringly, “We see in Madame la Comtesse du Cayla the sweet drunkenness, the gayness, the frisky abandonment of a Bacchante at the beginning of an orgy, in the first heights of pleasure.”
Élisabeth-Suzanne de Jaucourt, Comtesse du Cayla
In 1772 Élisabeth-Suzanne de Jaucourt (1755–1816) married her cousin François-Hercule-Philippe-Étienne de Baschi, Comte du Cayla. Five years later Houdon portrayed her as a carefree nymph with grape leaves circling her breast and windswept hair. The guise of a bacchante may make playful reference to her husband's last name, Baschi, which was linked by creative etymology to Bacchus; Bacchus and a bacchante supported the family coat of arms. A plaster version of Houdon's portrait was shown in the Salon of 1775; the present bust, exhibited two years later, is signed and dated 1777 on the back of the stand.
Through long tradition from ancient times, portraits, especially those carved in marble, were intended to confer upon the subject an approximation of immortality. Hence it was important to convey a notion of permanence and durability, in addition to the sitter's high character. Houdon's portrait of the Comtesse du Cayla seems deliberately to seek for opposites of these traditional desiderata. Lightness and movement, the fragility of time and substance are captured here in lacy stone. The frothy hair pinned with leaves and roses and the vine leaves worn over the shoulder are deeply undercut, emphasizing the brittleness and translucent qualities of marble. The young woman turns, a fleeting come-hither expression on her still demure, slightly smiling face. Her eyes appear to sparkle; the irises are dark holes above which a sliver of marble gives the illusion of bright reflection. Houdon obviously had studied Bernini during his years in Rome, but his consummate technique, refined imagination, and subtle interpretation of personality seem specifically products of eighteenth-century France.
Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.
Jaucourt family (until after 1884). Jacques Seligmann. Joseph Bardac. Wildenstein and Gimpel. Frick, 1916.
Source: Sculpture in The Frick Collection: German, Netherlandish, French and British. Volume IV. New York: The Frick Collection, 1970.
