I have referred for half my post to Chloe Govan’s paper on the controversial life of King Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour.
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (1721–1764) was the daughter of a grotty mother and a penniless fraudster father who was forced to flee the country when she was 4, to avoid hanging for his debts. Jean Pâris de Montmartel, a wealthy tax collector rumoured to be her biological father, became her legal guardian. Her guardian arranged her young marriage to his nephew, Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles. ![]()
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Queen Marie by Carle Van Loo, 1747
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (1721–1764) was the daughter of a grotty mother and a penniless fraudster father who was forced to flee the country when she was 4, to avoid hanging for his debts. Jean Pâris de Montmartel, a wealthy tax collector rumoured to be her biological father, became her legal guardian. Her guardian arranged her young marriage to his nephew, Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles.
Portrait of Madame de Pompadour
by François Boucher, 1754
When Jeanne-Antoinette and her husband acquired a château near the King Louis XV (1710–1774)’s hunting lodge, instead of settling into gentle married life, she paraded on horseback, hoping to catch the monarch’s eye. The king’s official mistress died in Dec 1744, leaving the position unfilled, so Jeanne-Antoinette was invited to a Palace of Versailles costume ball in 1745.
Jeanne-Antoinette came dressed as Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. Unmasking himself, Louis declared that he reciprocated her feelings. Within a month Jeanne-Antoinette had abandoned her husband (her two babies died in childhood) and moved into her own fancy apartment in Versailles Palace, directly above the King’s living quarters. She was given the title of the Marquise de Pompadour.
Queen Marie, who cared far more about power than romance, lacked desire for King Louis in any case. So the queen readily accepted her love rival without jealousy. Pompadour made herself indispensable as her queen’s respectful lady-in-waiting. In answer to rumours circulating in court about their love life, Louis acknowledged that genuine passions burned between himself and his mistress.
The King’s mistress wasted no time in sparking controversy eg she supported and aided the creation of the first French Encyclopaedia! And she was utterly unapologetic about her endeavours. Counting Voltaire among her closest friends, she made waves in literary circles and championed free thought.
But Pompadour’s political views had catastrophic consequences and spelled the end of her reign over public affections. As a close adviser to Louis, she prompted him to break a peace treaty with Prussia and to partner with Austria instead. Soon after this decision, France suffered a humiliating defeat in the Seven Years’ War.
Follow in the footsteps of this revolutionary and visit Versailles, and the royal Châteaux of Fontainebleau and Compiègne. She spent time in all three and helped oversee the design of the latter two. Her Paris mansion, Palais de l’Élysée, was a gift from the King.
Note Pompadour’s great passion for porcelain at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres Porcelain Museum-Factory, a few ks from Paris. And for her endless support of the tapestry industry. Nonetheless her contribution to the arts seemed to do little for her reputation. In the last Portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher her serious demeanour disguised a former life of scandal and stormy political subterfuge. She displayed calm, demure, glassy eyes and conservatively pursed lips. An outward appearance of virginal virtue!
The controversial royal mistress was one of the most reviled women in the country when she died of TB in 1764, at 42. So why did Govan suggest it had been a grave mistake to dismiss Pompadour as just another hot seductress? She had revolutionised French society.
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King Louis XV
by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, 1748
And she lobbied for the publication of the first French Encyclopaedia. It was a showcase for France’s new, rational intellectuals, much to the annoyance of the Catholic Church who wanted it banned. The Encyclopaedia openly discussed the Scientific Revolution, challenged the legitimacy of the ruling class and promoted reason ahead of religion. I imagine the Old Conservatives particularly disliked the emphasis on scientific determinism, and its criticism of the abuses executed by judicial and clerical institutions. People suggested the Encyclopédie was an intellectual prologue to the French Revolution, but was Madame Pompadour totally to blame for galvanising the Reactive Right? Surely not.
Jeanne-Antoinette came dressed as Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. Unmasking himself, Louis declared that he reciprocated her feelings. Within a month Jeanne-Antoinette had abandoned her husband (her two babies died in childhood) and moved into her own fancy apartment in Versailles Palace, directly above the King’s living quarters. She was given the title of the Marquise de Pompadour.
Queen Marie, who cared far more about power than romance, lacked desire for King Louis in any case. So the queen readily accepted her love rival without jealousy. Pompadour made herself indispensable as her queen’s respectful lady-in-waiting. In answer to rumours circulating in court about their love life, Louis acknowledged that genuine passions burned between himself and his mistress.
The King’s mistress wasted no time in sparking controversy eg she supported and aided the creation of the first French Encyclopaedia! And she was utterly unapologetic about her endeavours. Counting Voltaire among her closest friends, she made waves in literary circles and championed free thought.
But Pompadour’s political views had catastrophic consequences and spelled the end of her reign over public affections. As a close adviser to Louis, she prompted him to break a peace treaty with Prussia and to partner with Austria instead. Soon after this decision, France suffered a humiliating defeat in the Seven Years’ War.
Follow in the footsteps of this revolutionary and visit Versailles, and the royal Châteaux of Fontainebleau and Compiègne. She spent time in all three and helped oversee the design of the latter two. Her Paris mansion, Palais de l’Élysée, was a gift from the King.
Note Pompadour’s great passion for porcelain at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres Porcelain Museum-Factory, a few ks from Paris. And for her endless support of the tapestry industry. Nonetheless her contribution to the arts seemed to do little for her reputation. In the last Portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher her serious demeanour disguised a former life of scandal and stormy political subterfuge. She displayed calm, demure, glassy eyes and conservatively pursed lips. An outward appearance of virginal virtue!
The controversial royal mistress was one of the most reviled women in the country when she died of TB in 1764, at 42. So why did Govan suggest it had been a grave mistake to dismiss Pompadour as just another hot seductress? She had revolutionised French society.
**
Now I have to ask how did Madame de Pompadour revolutionise French society. Her position was a highly political one as well as a sexualised one, a split many apparently powerful women had managed over the years. King Louis XV died many years before the French Revolution, nonetheless his reign was remembered as disastrous for France. In this tense political climate, the King’s favoured mistress drew a lot of extra criticism. She was blamed for France’s failure in the Seven Years War and for running up court debts when she functioned as de facto prime minister. She was the king's closest advisor.
Pompadour was portrayed as a shrewd schemer who used sex to gain inappropriate influence over the king and increase power for herself, but she was hardly alone. In the sequestered court at Versailles, everyone was directly or indirectly vying for power and influence over the king. So the relentless maligning of just HER reputation before and after her death was greatly overstated.
Madame Pompadour should now be remembered for her artistic contributions, both as patron (which I knew) and creator (which I knew nothing about) - she did etchings, cut gems, played music and staged court amusements. And she commissioned artists to produce works that were displayed in her private collection and at the court.
As Govan noted, Pompadour gave very keen support to a porcelain factory that made beautiful tableware at Sèvres, near Versailles. She was instrumental in establishing Sèvres porcelain as the luxury object of choice throughout the C18th. In an attempt to bring Sèvres into the favour of her King, she commissioned an interior garden comprised entirely of porcelain flowers. Thanks to her, in 1753 Louis XV declared Sèvres a Royal Factory, a place I much loved.
Women who could understand and organise artistic and scientific innovation.. played an important role in the French Enlightenment. That was equally true for Pompadour who met and patronised Enlightenment intellectuals like Voltaire and Diderot.
Pompadour was portrayed as a shrewd schemer who used sex to gain inappropriate influence over the king and increase power for herself, but she was hardly alone. In the sequestered court at Versailles, everyone was directly or indirectly vying for power and influence over the king. So the relentless maligning of just HER reputation before and after her death was greatly overstated.
Madame Pompadour should now be remembered for her artistic contributions, both as patron (which I knew) and creator (which I knew nothing about) - she did etchings, cut gems, played music and staged court amusements. And she commissioned artists to produce works that were displayed in her private collection and at the court.
As Govan noted, Pompadour gave very keen support to a porcelain factory that made beautiful tableware at Sèvres, near Versailles. She was instrumental in establishing Sèvres porcelain as the luxury object of choice throughout the C18th. In an attempt to bring Sèvres into the favour of her King, she commissioned an interior garden comprised entirely of porcelain flowers. Thanks to her, in 1753 Louis XV declared Sèvres a Royal Factory, a place I much loved.
Women who could understand and organise artistic and scientific innovation.. played an important role in the French Enlightenment. That was equally true for Pompadour who met and patronised Enlightenment intellectuals like Voltaire and Diderot.
King Louis XV
by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, 1748
And she lobbied for the publication of the first French Encyclopaedia. It was a showcase for France’s new, rational intellectuals, much to the annoyance of the Catholic Church who wanted it banned. The Encyclopaedia openly discussed the Scientific Revolution, challenged the legitimacy of the ruling class and promoted reason ahead of religion. I imagine the Old Conservatives particularly disliked the emphasis on scientific determinism, and its criticism of the abuses executed by judicial and clerical institutions. People suggested the Encyclopédie was an intellectual prologue to the French Revolution, but was Madame Pompadour totally to blame for galvanising the Reactive Right? Surely not.
Queen Marie by Carle Van Loo, 1747