Natalie Victurnienne, Marquise de Rougé

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Natalie Victurnienne, Marquise de Rougé, was the daughter of the Duke de Mortemart.

In 1777, she married Bonabes, Marquis de Rougé, who died five years later while returning from the West Indies on board the battleship Zele after having fought for the American Independence. The two sons she had by Rouge, and who are portrayed beside her on a very famous painting by Vigee-Lebrun, (exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington) were named Alexis Bonabes Louis Victurnien (1778-1838) see Alexis Bonabes, Marquis de Rougé and Adrien, Count de Rougé (1782-1861).

In 1789, only three days after the fall of the Bastille, Mme de Rougé and her sons left France for Switzerland; they returned the following year and lived in seclusion with her husband's aunt, the Princess of Lorraine, Duchess d'Elbeuf, at the Chateau de Moreuil. In 1791, she, her children, her mother, and Mme de Pezay emigrated to Germany, settling first in Heidelberg. D'Espinchal encountered them there and noted in his journal: "I have found living here since the winter, the Duchess de Mortemart, mother of the Duke and of the Marquis de Mortemart, both of whom are deputies to the Estates-General ... and both members of the majority of the conservative nobility. The Marquise de Rougé, their sister, a pretty and amiable widow, is here with her children (she looks more like their sister) ... and Mme de Pezay ... who is her intimate friend" (pp. 242-243). In 1796, the Marquise de Rougé moved to Neustadt, near Vienna, where Adrien was admitted to the military academy. She lived in Altona and Munster before returning to Paris in 1798. As her lands had been expropriated and sold, at first she had to take room and board in a home run by former nuns. Her sons joined her in France in 1800. She died on December 25, 1828.