Madame de Pompadour

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Madame de Pompadour, portrait by François Boucher circa 1750, detail

Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise (later Duchesse) de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour (December 29, 1721 – April 15, 1764) was a well-known courtesan and the famous mistress of King Louis XV of France.

1 Early life
2 Marriage
3 Versailles
4 Political role
5 Position at court
6 In popular culture
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Early life

Madame de Pompadour was born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson on December 29, 1721 in Paris. It is suspected that her biological father was the rich financier Le Normant de Tournehem, who became her legal guardian when her official father Francois Poisson, a steward to the Paris brothers--foremost financiers of the French economy--was forced to leave the country in 1725 after a scandal over a series of unpaid debts--a crime at that time punishable by death. Poisson was cleared eight years later and allowed to return to France. Her younger brother was Abel-François Poisson de Vandières (who would later become the Marquis de Marigny). Jeanne-Antoinette was intelligent, beautiful, and educated; she also learned to dance, engrave, play the clavichord and was an accomplished actress and singer.

She later claimed that at the age of nine, she was taken by her mother to a fortune teller and told that she would someday reign over the heart of a king. Apparently her mother believed the prophecy and accordingly nicknamed her "Reinette". She spent a year in a convent as her father wished her to be exposed to the Roman Catholic religion. Her education at home resumed once she returned from the convent. Her education included learning to recite entire plays by heart, botany, painting, charming men, and effective running of a large household. Much of this education was paid for by Le Normant de Tournehem, a close friend of her mother's and it may have been this in particular that sparked rumours of his paternity to little Jeanne-Antoinette. The greatest expense of her education was undoubtedly the employment of famous singers and actors, such as Pierre Jelyotte.

Her parents initially found it hard to make her a good match, probably due to their own notoriety rather than any defect in their daughter for, besides her father's exile, her mother was a well-known prostitute.

[edit] Marriage

At last, she was married in 1741 (at the age of 19) to Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d'Étiolles, nephew of her guardian, who accepted the match and the large financial incentives that came with it. These included the estate at Étiolles, a wedding gift from her guardian, which was situated on the edge of the royal hunting ground of the forest of Sénart. With her husband, she had two children, a boy who died the year after his birth in 1741 and Alexandrine-Jeanne (nicknamed "Fanfan"), born August 10, 1744. Contemporary opinion supported by artwork from the time considered Poisson to be quite beautiful, with her small mouth and oval face enlivened by her wit. Her young husband was soon infatuated with her and she was celebrated in the fashionable world of Paris. She founded her own salon, at Étiolles outside Paris, and was joined by many of the great philosophes, Voltaire among them.

Mme de Pompadour, pastel by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, shown at the Paris Salon, 1755 (Louvre Museum)

[edit] Versailles

As Reinette became known in society, even the King came to hear of her. Madame Poisson, ever ambitious for the prophecy to succeed, numerous times took Reinette in their carriage to the royal forest in the hope of 'accidentally' encountering the King. At last, Reinette caught the eye of King Louis XV in 1745. A group of courtiers, including her father-in-law, promoted her acquaintance with the monarch, who was still mourning the death of his second official mistress, Duchesse de Châteauroux. In February 1745, Antoinette was invited to a royal masked ball at Versailles celebrating the marriage of the King's son.

At the chosen moment in the Grand Ballroom, eight costumed figures appeared, comically dressed as yew-tree hedges, one of which was the King in disguise. By chance or design, Reinette dressed as Diana, goddess of the Hunt, had found her prey and soon the King removed his headdress and engaged her in courtly conversation. By March, she was a regular visitor and King's mistress, installed at Versailles.

He also bought her the estate of Pompadour, a marquisate with title and coat-of-arms, for in order to be presented at court she required a title. In July, Louis created her a marquise and she was legally separated from her crestfallen husband; on September 14 she was formally presented at court, and quickly mastered the highly-mannered court etiquette, although initially it is said the king joked to his close friends that he would have much to teach her (clearly referring to her bourgeois roots). Unfortunately her mother had died too early to see the prophecy come true but come true it had and at 23 she was undisputed royal mistress, commanding considerable power and the attention of the court. She was soon to become embroiled in the world of alliances, conspiracies, politics, and frivolity.

[edit] Political role

Contrary to popular belief, she never had much direct political influence, but supported the Maréchal de Belle-Isle and endorsed the Duke of Choiseul to the king. However, she did wield considerable power and control behind the scenes, which was highlighted when another of the king's mistresses, Marie-Louise O'Murphy de Boisfaily, "la belle Morphyse", attempted to replace her around 1754. The younger, less experienced Morphyse was arranged to be married off to a lesser noble and out of the royal court's inner circle, the Lord of Ayat, uncle of the famous general Desaix. She would have a son from this marriage who'd be present at the execution of Louis XVI.

She had many enemies among the royal courtiers, who felt it a disgrace that the king would thus compromise himself with a commoner. She was very sensitive to the unending libels called poissonnades, a word meaning something like "fish stew", a pun on her family name, Poisson, which means "fish" in French. Only with great reluctance did Louis take punitive action against known enemies such as the Duc de Richelieu.

Her importance was such that she was even approached in 1755 by Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz, a prominent Austrian diplomat, asking her to intervene in the negotiations which led to the 1756 Treaty of Versailles. This was the beginning of the so-called Diplomatic Revolution, which temporarily lessened the long antagonism between France and Austria. This alliance eventually brought on the Seven Years' War, with all its disasters, like the loss of New France in Canada to the British and the defeat at the hands of the Prussians in Battle of Rossbach, in 1757. After Rossbach, she is alleged to have comforted the king saying this now famous by-word: "au reste, après nous, le déluge" ("After us, the Deluge"). France emerged from the war diminished and virtually bankrupt.

However, Pompadour persisted in her support of these policies, and when Cardinal de Bernis failed her, brought Choiseul into office and supported him in all his great plans: the Pacte de Famille, the suppression of the Jesuits and the peace of Versailles, sealing the loss of Canada.

[edit] Position at court

Madame de Pompadour was an accomplished woman with a good eye for Rococo interiors. She was responsible for the development of the manufactory of Sèvres, which became one of the most famous porcelain manufacturers in Europe and which provided skilled jobs to the region. She had a keen interest in literature. She had known Voltaire before her ascendancy, and the playwright apparently advised her in her courtly role. She also discreetly endorsed Diderot's Encyclopédie project. After the War of the Austrian Succession, when economy was the thing the French state needed most, she drew more and more resources into the lavish court. Her influence over Louis increased markedly through the 1750s, to the point where he allowed her considerable leeway in the determination of policy over a whole range of issues, from military matters to foreign affairs.

Her memorial portrait finished in 1764 after her death, but begun while she was alive, by her favorite portraitist, François-Hubert Drouais

Pompadour was a woman of verve and intelligence. She planned buildings like the Place de la Concorde and the Petit Trianon with her brother, the Marquis de Marigny. She employed the stylish marchands-merciers, trendsetting shopkeepers who turned Chinese vases into ewers with gilt-bronze Rococo handles and mounted writing tables with the new Sèvres porcelain plaques. Numerous other artisans, sculptors and portrait painters were employed, among them the court artist Jean-Marc Nattier, in the 1750s Francois Boucher, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon and Francois-Hubert Drouais (illustration, right).

Pompadour suffered two miscarriages in 1746 and 1749, and she is said to have arranged lesser mistresses for the King's pleasure to replace herself. Although they did not sleep together after 1750, Louis XV remained devoted to her until her death in 1764 at the age of 43. Even her enemies admired her courage during the final painful weeks. Voltaire wrote: "I am very sad at the death of Madame de Pompadour. I was indebted to her and I mourn her out of gratitude. It seems absurd that while an ancient pen-pusher, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty'. Yet, at the time of her death, many enemies were greatly relieved and she was publicly blamed for the Seven Years' War. Looking at the rain during the leaving of his mistress' coffin from Versailles, the King reportedly said: "La Marquise n'aura pas beau temps pour son voyage." ("The marquise won't have good weather for her journey.").

[edit] In popular culture

The 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot, a unit of the British Army that existed from 1755 to 1881, was nicknamed "The Pompadours", as the purple facing of the regiment's uniform was allegedly de Pompadour's favourite colour.^[1] Some soldiers of the regiment preferred to claim that it was the colour of her underwear.^[1] Its successor, the Essex Regiment, kept the colour and the nickname.
The classic pink of Sèvres porcelain is rose de Pompadour.
The Pompadour hairstyle is named after her.
"Pompadour heels", (more commonly known as "Louis heels") are named after her.
The "Coupe de champagne" (French champagne glass) is sometimes claimed to have been modelled on the shape of her breast, although this is probably not the case.^[2]
Madame de Pompadour has been depicted on screen in film and television on many occasions, beginning with Madame Pompadour in 1927, in which she was played by Dorothy Gish. Other actresses to have played her include:
- Anny Ahlers (Die Marquise von Pompadour, 1931);
- Jeanne Boitell, (Remontons les Champs-Élyssées, 1938);
- Micheline Presle, (Si Versailles m'était conté, 1954);
- Monique Lepage, (Le Courrier du roy, 1958);
- Elfie Mayerhofer (Madame Pompadour, 1960);
- Noemi Nadelmann (Madame Pompadour, 1996);
- Katja Flint, (Il Giovane Casanova, 2002);
- Sophia Myles (as adult) and Jessica Atkins (as child) (Doctor Who — "The Girl in the Fireplace", a science fiction story, 2006). She is a primary and titular character in the episode.^[3]
- Hélène de Fougerolles (Jeanne Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, 2006).
Madame Pompadour, a German operetta with music by Leo Fall and book and lyrics by Rudolph Schanzer and Ernst Welisch that also had successful adaptations in London (1923) and Broadway (1924).
She was the subject of several portraits throughout her lifetime. [1] [2] [3]

[4]

Madame Pompadour is the name of PeeWee's rag doll in the Robert A. Heinlein juvenile novel Have Space Suit—Will Travel.
In My Name is Kim Sam Soon, the title character presents an ice cream confection named the "Marquise Glacée" in honor of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.
During the musical Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, she is mentioned by an Argentine senator, comparing Eva Perón to her.
In the anime "Le Chevalier d'Eon", she is portrayed as a character that monitors the movements of d'Eon and his men against the Revolutionary brethren. She is voiced by Mayumi Yangisawa in Japanese and by Shelley Calene-Black in the English dub.
Domaine Carneros, located in Napa, CA, makes a brut Rosé de la Pompadour in honor of the mistress and her contributions to literature and the arts.
According to legend, the navette-cut or marquis diamond was commissioned by Louis XV to resemble the mouth of Madame de Pompadour.
The skeleton held within the inner sanctum of the Tomb at Yale University's Skull & Bones senior society is nicknamed after her.[5]