Women's secrets of the Marquise de pompadour. The amazing Marquise de Pompadour Why did the Marquise de Pompadour die?
Legend of the 18th century. Jeanne Antoinette Poisson
born in 1721. Paris. France.
François Boucher. The Marquise de Pompadour, 1755.
When the girl was 9 years old, her mother decided to take her to one of the most famous fortune tellers of that time - Madame Lebon. The fortune teller looked carefully at the fragile, ugly girl and made a prophecy: “This little one will one day become the king’s favorite!” 
So, Jeanne Antoinette is 19 years old, she is not beautiful, not rich, and not in good health. What are her chances of making a decent match? Oddly enough, a groom for Jeanne was found quickly enough - a certain Charles de Etiol, nephew of Norman de Tournham. Charles, of course, is not a fairy-tale prince, but he is from a good family, and also rich. Another would have grabbed such a proposal with her hands and feet, someone else, but not Jeanne Antoinette. She drags on and on with a final answer. Cause? A prediction made by Madame Le Bon 10 years ago. What kind of Charles is there if there may be a king in the future? 
F. Boucher. Marquise de Pompadour.
To become the king's mistress, you first need to be seen by the king. Young Jeanne begins to regularly travel to the Senard forest, where the king used to hunt. The first time the king drove past, the second time he stopped and looked carefully at Mademoiselle Poisson... After which a man came to her mother, conveying the “request” of the Marquise de Chateauroux (the then favorite of Louis) “to relieve the king from the annoying attention of Mademoiselle Poisson.” 
François Boucher. Marquise de Pompadour 1750.
This was the collapse of her hopes. Jeanne marries Charles de Etiol, but does not cross the king off the list. After all, the fortune teller didn’t say that she would be a queen, she would be a favorite, which means she needs to be as close to the court as possible. 
Nattier Jean-Marc. Portrait of Louis XV.
In 1744, the Marquise de Chateauroux unexpectedly died. The court begins to be in a fever, “parties” are formed in support of one or another candidate for the role of favorite.
In March 1745, at a ball, the king's attention is attracted by a young lady dressed as Diana the Huntress. The charming mask intrigues him and... disappears into the crowd, having previously dropped the scented handkerchief. The king, being a gallant gentleman, picks up the handkerchief, but, unable to give it to the lady in person, throws it through the crowd. Competitors are in mourning - the scarf is thrown... 
Madame de Pompadour. Jean-Marc Nattier 1748.
A few words about the character of the man for whom such a stubborn struggle was waged: Louis XV became king at the age of five. By the time he met Jeanne de Etiol, 35-year-old Louis had tried all possible pleasures and therefore... was wildly bored. Jeanne Annoinette intuitively guessed how to hook the jaded king. 
Oh, women who sit in the evenings waiting for a phone call from the “one and only”, take an example from the Marquise de Pompadour: if circumstances do not favor you, create favorable circumstances yourself.
What it cost Jeanne to get a seat next to the royal box - history is silent. But no matter how much she paid for it, the dividends were received almost instantly - the king invited her to dinner... That evening Jeanne made her only mistake, which, however, could have been fatal. That evening she gave herself to the king. 
Bonnet Louis Marine.
The next day, Louis, accustomed to a certain behavior of the ladies “happy” with him, prepared several polite phrases to once and for all discourage the applicant. Naive, he did not yet know who he had contacted. 
Madame de Pompadour as Diana. Jean-Marc Nattier 1752.
The prudent Jeanne bribed one of the king's confidants. The “face” told Madame that the king considered her “not entirely disinterested,” and besides, the crown prince, who saw Jeanne in the theater, found her “somewhat vulgar.”
Days passed, and Diana the Huntress did not appear. Louis began to be visited by normal male doubts - maybe she didn’t like him in bed? 
M. K. de Latour. Madame de Pompadour.
Probably, if Jeanne Poisson had been born at another time, she would have become a great actress. The next meeting between the king and the future favorite took place in the tradition of strong melodrama. Jeanne secretly (with the help of bribed persons) made her way into the palace and fell at the feet of the king. Wringing her hands, she told His Majesty about the insane passion that she had long harbored for him, about the danger that awaits her in the person of her jealous husband (Louis would have looked at the stunted Charles de Etiol in the role of the jealous Othello). And then - “let me die...”
It was a brilliant move - in this situation there was no such thing as boredom. The king promised Jeanne that after returning from Flanders, he would make her an official favorite. 
F. Boucher 1759 Marquise de Pompadour.
On September 14, 1745, Louis officially introduced his new girlfriend to the court. The court received her with hostility: she was not of noble birth, so she received the nickname Grisette (by this, the king’s associates clearly made it clear to Jeanne that they did not see the difference between her and street girls). To put an end to the rumors, the king gives his favorite the title of Marquise de Pompadour. 
Madame Pompadour in blue.
Oddly enough, the one who reacted best to the new favorite was... the king's wife, nee Maria Leshchinskaya. The queen, very pious, very correct and completely indifferent to sexual pleasures (not surprising - in the first 12 years of marriage she gave birth to 10 children to the king) felt a kindred spirit in Jeanne. She was not mistaken - the intimate side was most difficult for Zhanna. She tried all sorts of aphrodisiacs to suit her lover’s appetites. 
The fact that the new favorite had “temperament problems” very soon became known to everyone. Naturally, many ladies considered this a sign from above and tried to push the marquise away from the royal bed. But, “even the most beautiful girl cannot give more than what she has.” And in the arsenal of the marquise there were a thousand and one ways to keep the king - it was enough to cheer him up. 
Louis XV. Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788)
She begins to patronize talented people, and in her living room the king meets the outstanding minds of that time. Refined conversations, wonderful company... His Majesty is never bored. The Marquise was a very cynical woman; all collections of aphorisms contain her famous: “After us? Even a flood.” 
Alexander Roslin. Portrait of Madame Pompadour.
But her “contribution” to the cultural heritage of mankind is not limited to this... Diamonds, the cut of which is called “marquise” (oval stones), in their shape resemble the mouth of a favorite. Champagne is bottled either in narrow tulip glasses or in cone-shaped glasses that appeared during the reign of Louis XV - this is exactly the shape of Madame de Pompadour's breasts. A small reticule handbag made of soft leather is also her invention. She introduced high heels and high hairstyles into fashion because she was short. 
Boucher F. Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour.
In 1751, the first volume of the French Encyclopedia, or “Explanatory Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts,” saw the light of day, opening a new era in the knowledge and interpretation of nature and society. The author of the idea and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia is Denis Diderot. She helped another representative of the glorious galaxy of figures of the French Enlightenment, Jean Leron d'Alembert, financially, and shortly before her death she managed to secure a lifelong pension for him. Among Madame Pompadour’s wards, according to some contemporaries, was the famous creator of the monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg, the sculptor Falconet. 
M. V. de Parédès Mozart by Madame de Pompadour, "Monde illustré" 1857.
The famous freethinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau, although he was offended by the marquise for not introducing him to the king, was still grateful to her for her help in staging his “Siberian Soothsayer” on stage, where the marquise performed with great success in the male role of Collin. It was with the assistance of the Marquise of Pompadour that Voltaire gained fame and a worthy place as an academician and the main historian of France, also receiving the title of court chamberlain. 
François Boucher. Madame de Pompadour.
It was at the instigation of the Marquise that a Military School was created in Paris for the sons of war veterans and impoverished nobles. When the money allocated for construction runs out, the marquise contributes the missing amount. In October 1781, student Napoleon Bonaparte arrived at the school to study. 
François Boucher. Presumable portrait of Jeanne Poisson.
In 1756, the Marquise founded a porcelain factory on the Sevres estate. She took an active part in the creation of Sevres porcelain. The rare pink color, obtained as a result of numerous experiments, is named in her honor - Rose Pompadour. In Versailles, the marquise arranged a large exhibition of the first batch of products, sold it herself, declaring publicly: “If someone who has money does not buy this porcelain, he is a bad citizen of his country.” 
Construction was the marquise's second passion, after the theater. Her last acquisition was the Menard castle, which she never managed to use in its converted version. The principle of elegant simplicity and maximum proximity to the living world of nature was put into the planning of the parks by the Marquise. She did not like large, unregulated spaces and excessive pomp. Thickets of jasmine, entire edges of daffodils, violets, carnations, islands with gazebos in the core of shallow lakes, rose bushes of the marquise’s favorite “hue of dawn” - these are her preferences in landscape art. 
The most successful mistress of France aroused jealousy not only among hundreds of other contenders for a place in the royal bedroom. Recognized culinary masters secretly envied the “marquise-nurse” who had invaded their territory. Others admired her. Evidence of this is dozens of culinary masterpieces dedicated to Pompadour. There are legendary lamb chops, pheasant croquettes, young lamb tournedos with Perigue sauce, chopped goose liver aspic, tongue and mushroom aspic with truffles in Madeira sauce, apricot dessert, and small petit fours... 
By 1751, the Marquise realized that she would not be able to hold the king’s attention for long - sooner or later he would turn his gaze to younger women - Madame de Pompadour took this matter into her own hands. The Marquise de Pompadour was the king's mistress for only 5 years, and for another 15 years she was a friend and closest adviser on many issues, sometimes of national importance. 
François Boucher.
The Marquise's cold reason and her iron will told her a way out of the situation. In the silence of two unremarkable Parisian streets, she rented a house with five rooms, hidden by a dense crown of trees. This house, called “Deer Park”, became the meeting place of the king with the ladies invited... by the marquise. 
Jean-Marc Nattier. Marquise de Pompadour (1722-1764).
The king appeared here incognito, the girls took him for some important gentleman. After the king’s fleeting passion for the next beauty disappeared and remained without consequences, the girl, provided with a dowry, was married off. If the matter ended with the appearance of a child, then after his birth the baby, together with his mother, received a very significant annuity. Numerous mistresses are selected under the personal guidance of the Marquise. But none of them last longer than a year. The Marquise continued to remain the official favorite of His Majesty. 
The Marquise will introduce Louis to Louison Morphy. The relationship will last two years, but one day, deciding that now she can do everything, Louison will ask His Majesty: “How is the old coquette doing?” Three days later, Louison, along with the daughter she gave birth to from Louis, leaves the famous house in Deer Park forever. By 1760, the amounts allocated by the royal treasury for the maintenance of the marquise decreased by 8 times. In the spring of 1764, the Marquise de Pompadour became seriously ill. She sold jewelry and played cards - she was usually lucky. But the treatment required a lot of money, and they had to borrow it. Already being seriously ill, she even acquired a lover. But what is the Marquis of Choiseul compared to the king! 
Madame Pompadour as a Vestal by Fran. David M. Stewart 1763.
The marquise, who still accompanied Louis everywhere, suddenly lost consciousness on one of his trips. Soon everyone realized that the end was near. And although only royalty had the right to die in Versailles, Louis ordered her to be moved to the palace apartments. 
Madame de Pompadour. DROUAIS François-Hubert 1763-64.
On April 15, 1764, the royal chronicler recorded: "The Marquise de Pompadour, lady-in-waiting of the Queen, died about 7 o'clock in the evening in the King's private apartments, aged 43 years." As the funeral procession turned towards Paris, Louis, standing on the palace balcony in the pouring rain, said: “What disgusting weather you chose for your last walk, madame!” Behind this seemingly completely inappropriate joke was hidden true sadness.
The Marquise de Pompadour was buried next to her mother and daughter in the tomb of the Capuchin monastery. Now at the site of her burial there is Rue de la Paix, which runs through the territory of the monastery that was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century. 
Paris Rue de la Paix.
She revealed a secret that all women in the world are puzzling over - how to keep a man near you for 20 years, if he is not even a husband, and you have not had an intimate relationship for a long time.
“No one can fully appreciate what women have done for France,” argued the writer and philosopher-enlightenment Bernard Le Beauvier de Fontenelle. And someone who has lived in the world for exactly 100 years and witnessed the transformation of this state into the most authoritative and enlightened in Europe can be trusted. There is no doubt that, paying tribute to the weak half of France, de Fontenelle also had in mind the famous marquise, who forced politicians to seriously talk about the era of Pompadour.
Only the power concentrated in the hands of the most influential favorite of Louis XV forced her too zealous opponents not to delve into the details of her origin. And this extremely irritated a woman striving for perfection in everything. Although we have received information that Jeanne Antoinette Poisson’s father was a footman who became a quartermaster, stole and abandoned his family.
The proud marquise could easily disown such a parent, but then she would have to admit that she was an illegitimate child. The fact is that her father was also called the noble financier Norman de Thurnham. It was assumed that it was he who gave the girl, born in 1721, an excellent education and took part in her fate in every possible way. And not in vain...
Zhanna was clearly gifted with extraordinary abilities: she drew beautifully, played music, had a small but clear voice and a real passion for poetry, which she was excellent at reciting. Those around her invariably expressed delight, giving Mademoiselle Poisson the necessary self-confidence. The fortune teller, who predicted a love affair with the king for a 9-year-old girl, only confirmed her chosenness and exclusivity. The future marquise paid this kind woman a pension until the end of her days.
At the age of 19, Jeanne walked down the aisle with the nephew of her patron, and possibly her father. The groom was short and completely ugly, but rich and passionately in love with the bride. So the maiden Poisson parted with her unenviable surname and became Madame d'Etiol. Her family life flowed serenely, two years later she gave birth to a daughter, Alexandra, which, however, could not overshadow in her mind the dreams of a king that were lodged like a nail in her pretty head.
Jeanne used her every appearance in the boudoirs of numerous friends, as well as in the living rooms of high society, where her husband’s name and wealth opened the way for her. Rumors, gossip, and sometimes true information - everything went into her ideas about the life of the king and his court.
She already knew that at that time the king was busy with the Duchess de Chateauroux. And then the main traits of her character began to appear - perseverance and determination. She began to regularly travel to the Senar Forest, where the king used to hunt. However, it was not the king who caught the eye of her, but the ambitious Duchess de Chateauroux, who quickly declassified the purpose of her forest walks. And Zhanna was forbidden to appear in these places. Such a click on the nose sobered up the applicant for a while, but the cards, it seemed, didn’t lie after all. The Duchess de Chateauroux, being twenty-seven years old, died suddenly of pneumonia, and Madame d'Etiol took this as a signal to action.
On February 28, 1745, at the Paris City Hall, which still stands in the same place today, during a masquerade ball, Jeanne met the king face to face for the first time. However, at first she was wearing a mask, but the monarch, intrigued by the stranger’s behavior, asked her to reveal her face. Probably the impression was more than favorable...
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Louis XV was called a man with an “extremely complex and mysterious character” and a “early tired” king. It was said about him that his “modesty was a quality that turned into a flaw in him.”
And since Louis felt most relaxed in the company of women, in France the king was considered a “lustful sinner.”
Louis XV was born in 1710. At the age of five, after the death of his great-grandfather, King Louis XIV, inherited the throne. When he was 9, Russian Emperor Peter came to Paris to negotiate “about wooing the king of our daughters, and especially the middle one,” Elizabeth. Versailles was not delighted with the prospect of Louis marrying the daughter of a portomoi. The origins of the wife of the Russian Emperor Catherine were well known. And the marriage did not take place. The beautiful and lively Lizetka, as Peter called his middle daughter, stayed at home and clearly made the right choice by becoming the Russian Empress.
At the age of 11, Louis was found a suitable bride - Maria Leszczynska, daughter of the Polish king Stanislaus. When the king turned 15, they got married. His wife was seven years older than him, extremely pious, boring and unattractive. According to some reports, during the first 12 years of marriage, she gave birth to ten children to Louis. The king, who had been an exemplary husband all these years, became so fed up with politics, economics, and his own family that he began to focus mainly on what gave him true pleasure - the fine arts and no less elegant women.
By the time he met Jeanne d’Etiol at a masquerade ball, this “most handsome man in his kingdom,” nicknamed Louis the Beautiful, was 35 years old.
Although it is hardly possible to unambiguously characterize the appearance of this woman, so artistically gifted. Here, as the classic rightly noted, “everything is not what it is, but what it seems.” That is why the descriptions of the appearance of the future Marquise de Pompadour varied so much. Much here, of course, depended on the attitude towards her. One of her detractors did not find anything special in her: “She was blonde with a too pale face, somewhat plump and rather poorly built, although endowed with grace and talents.”
But the chief huntsman of the forests and parks of Versailles, Monsieur Leroy, who described the king’s girlfriend as a real beauty, noted a beautiful complexion, thick, lush hair with a chestnut tint, a perfectly shaped nose and mouth, literally “made for kissing.” Particularly admired were his large, incomprehensible-colored eyes, which left the impression of “some kind of vague point in a restless soul.” Poetic. And it completely coincides with the portraits of Francois Boucher, to whom the future marquise provided constant patronage.
It is possible that it was the marquise’s patronage that influenced the fact that in portraits by Boucher she appears as a goddess of beauty, and at the same time of fertility, with a fresh, ruddy and rather well-fed face of a peasant girl, while history has brought to us facts testifying to that , what poor health this woman was and what incredible efforts it required of her to maintain the illusory glory of a blooming beauty.
One way or another, her “eyes of incomprehensible color” turned out to be opposite the royal ones not only at the masquerade ball, but also at the subsequent performance of the Italian comedy. Jeanne had to work hard to get a seat next to his box. As a result, the king invited Madame d'Etiol to dinner, which was the beginning of their relationship.
Although after the meeting the king told his confidant, bribed by the prudent Jeanne, that Madame d'Etiol was, of course, very sweet, it seemed to him that she was not entirely sincere and clearly not disinterested, and it was also noted that the crown prince, who saw “this lady "in the theater, found her vulgar...
From all this it became clear that Jeanne’s progress towards her cherished goal would not be problem-free. She managed to get her next date with great difficulty. She played her part in this last attempt with the gusto of desperation. The king was offered a simply melodramatic plot: the unfortunate woman made her way into the palace apartments, risking falling at the hands of a jealous husband, only to look at the man she adored. And then - “let me die...”
The king did not shout “bravo”; he did better, promising Jeanne that upon returning from the theater of military operations in Flanders, he would make the victim of jealousy an official favorite.
Royal messages were delivered to Madame d'Etiolle, meaningfully signed: "Loving and devoted." Aware of Louis's minute habits and preferences, she answered him in a light, piquant style. The Abbé de Bernis, a connoisseur of belles-lettres, was entrusted to read her letters and bring final shine to them. And then one day she received a royal dispatch addressed to the Marquise de Pompadour. Jeanne finally received the title of an old and respectable noble family, albeit extinct.
On September 14, 1745, the king introduced the newly-made marquise to those close to him as his girlfriend. One might be surprised, but the one who treated her most loyally was... the king’s wife, who by that time was accustomed to literally everything. The courtiers were quietly indignant. Since the time of Gabrielle d'Estrée, who became the first official favorite of the monarch, Henry IV of Navarre, in the history of France, this place of honor has been occupied by a lady of a good family name. They were also offered to love and favor almost a plebeian. The Marquise was immediately given the nickname Grisette with a clear hint that in their eyes she was not much different from the people who earn their living by sewing cheap clothes and walking the evening streets of Paris.
Jeanne understood that until the king was entirely in her power, the title of favorite could hardly be retained for long. And she could become indispensable for him only if she was able to change the very quality of his life, relieve him of the melancholy and boredom that had recently become Louis’s constant companions. This means that Jeanne had to become a kind of Versailles Scheherazade.
This transformation happened quickly. The Marquise de Pompadour relied on the fine arts, so beloved by Louis. Now every evening in her living room the king found an interesting guest. Bouchardon, Montesquieu, Fragonard, Boucher, Vanloo, Rameau, the famous naturalist Buffon - this is not a complete list of representatives of the artistic and intellectual elite who surrounded the marquise. Voltaire had a special place. Zhanna met him in her youth and considered herself his student. Along with the works of Corneille, the Marquise was involved in the publication of his works.
It was with the assistance of the Marquise of Pompadour that Voltaire gained fame and a worthy place as an academician and the main historian of France, also receiving the title of court chamberlain.
Voltaire dedicated “Tancreda” to the Marquise, one of his most famous works. In addition, he wrote “The Princess of Navarre” and “Temple of Glory” especially for her palace holidays, thus glorifying his patroness both in poetry and prose.
When the Marquise died, Voltaire, one of the few, found warm words for the deceased: “I am deeply shocked by the death of Madame de Pompadour. I owe her a lot, I mourn her. What an irony of fate that an old man who... can barely walk is still alive, and a lovely woman dies at the age of 40 in the prime of the most wonderful fame in the world.”
Such an elegant society entertained the king, revealing to him more and more new facets of life. In turn, the guests of the marquise - undeniably talented people - increased their social status in the eyes of society, thereby gaining significant support. From the very beginning of her favor, the marquise felt a taste for philanthropy and did not change this passion all her life.
In 1751, the first volume of the French Encyclopedia, or “Explanatory Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts,” saw the light of day, opening a new era in the knowledge and interpretation of nature and society. The author of the idea and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia, Denis Diderot, a staunch opponent of absolutism and clergy, did not become an outcast in the eyes of the Marquise of Pompadour, she helped him publish his works. At the same time, she repeatedly tried to protect him from persecution, calling on Diderot to be more careful, although her efforts in this direction were completely unsuccessful.
She helped another representative of the glorious galaxy of figures of the French Enlightenment, Jean Leron d'Alembert, financially, and shortly before her death she managed to secure a lifelong pension for him. Among Madame Pompadour's wards, according to some contemporaries, was the famous creator of the monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg, the sculptor Falconet.
The famous freethinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau, although he was offended by the marquise for not introducing him to the king, was still grateful to her for her help in staging his “Siberian Soothsayer” on stage, where the marquise performed with great success in the male role of Collin.
In general, theater is the sphere that would have turned out to be her true calling if fate had turned out differently. A great and extremely versatile actress, both comedic, dramatic, and grotesque, who was also capable of singing and dancing, clearly perished in it.
The passion for transforming beyond recognition and creating stunning toilets that defined the style of an entire era, endless searches and innovations in the field of hairdressing and makeup - in all this one sees not only the desire to keep the fickle king, but also the urgent need of the richly gifted nature of the marquise.
She used every suitable opportunity to gain viewers and listeners. As contemporaries testified, she played both in well-equipped theaters and on small stages in the mansions of the French nobility.
The next estate purchased by the marquise was called Sevres. Having no sympathy for anything German and outraged by the dominance of Saxon porcelain, she decided to create her own porcelain production there.
In 1756, two magnificent buildings were built here: one for workers, the other for the enterprise itself. The Marquise, who often visited there, supported and encouraged the workers, and found experienced craftsmen, artists, and sculptors. The experiments went on day and night - the marquise was impatient and did not like delays. She herself participated in solving all problems and helped in choosing shapes and colors for future products. The rare pink color of the resulting porcelain was named in her honor - "Rose Pompadour". In Versailles, the marquise arranged a large exhibition of the first batch of products, sold it herself, declaring publicly: “If someone who has money does not buy this porcelain, he is a bad citizen of his country.”
The Marquise conceived and implemented the Chamber Theater in the Palace of Versailles. In January 1747, its opening took place: Moliere’s “Tartuffe” was shown. There were almost fewer actors on stage along with the marquise involved in the play than there were spectators in the hall: only 14 people were invited. Each entrance ticket was obtained at the cost of incredible effort and even intrigue. The success of the performance exceeded all expectations. The king was delighted with Jeanne's performance. “You are the most charming woman in France,” he told her after the end of the performance.
Those who had the pleasure of attending the marquise’s singing performances argued that “she has a great sense of music, sings very expressively and with inspiration, and probably knows at least a hundred songs.”
The obvious superiority of the Marquise of Pompadour over the king's past favorites and ladies of high society in every possible way strengthened her position both at court and under Louis. And she took advantage of this, without fear of being branded immodest. However, this quality was not a strong side of her nature anyway. Both in the external and in the private life, hidden from prying eyes, Madame Pompadour ruled the roost.
She was very scrupulous in matters of etiquette and ceremony. Important visitors - courtiers and ambassadors - were received by her in the luxurious state hall of Versailles, where there was only one chair - the rest of those present were supposed to stand.
She ensured that her daughter was addressed as a person of royal blood - by name. The marquise reburied the ashes of her mother with great honors in the very center of Paris - in the Capuchin monastery on Place Vendôme. On this site, specially purchased by the marquise, a luxurious mausoleum was built. The marquise's relatives, as well as all those whom she favored, were biding their time: some of them were married to a high-born groom, others were matched with a rich bride, positions, life annuities, titles, and awards were given.
And the result is undisguised and sometimes public condemnation of her extravagance. It was estimated that she spent 4 million on her entertainment ventures, and her “boastful philanthropy” cost the treasury 8 million livres.
Construction was the marquise's second passion, after the theater. She owned so much real estate that any other royal favorite could hardly even dream of. Each of her new acquisitions implied a thorough reconstruction, if not demolition, and always to the taste of the owner. Often the marquise herself sketched out the outlines of the future building on paper. Moreover, in these projects, the attraction to Rococo architectural forms was invariably combined with common sense and practicality.
If the marquise did not have enough money for another construction project, she would sell the already erected building and enthusiastically set about bringing a new idea to life. Her last acquisition was the Menard castle, which she never managed to use in its converted version.
The principle of elegant simplicity and maximum proximity to the living world of nature was put into the planning of the parks by the Marquise. She did not like large, unregulated spaces and excessive pomp. Thickets of jasmine, entire edges of daffodils, violets, carnations, islands with gazebos in the core of shallow lakes, rose bushes of the marquise’s favorite “hue of dawn” - these are her preferences in landscape art.
Louis's royal palaces and country residences were also modified to suit her tastes. Versailles did not escape this either, where the marquise, not far from the royal park, ordered the construction of a small cozy house with a park and a temple with a white marble statue of Adonis.
A visit to the famous Institute of Noble Maidens, located in Saint-Cyr, gave the marquis the idea of creating a Military School in Paris for the sons of war veterans and impoverished nobles, for which permission was received from the king, who did not show much enthusiasm for this venture.
Construction began in one of the most prestigious areas of the capital - near the Campus Martius.
The building project was commissioned from the first-class architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel, creator of the famous Place de la Concorde. Construction, which began in 1751, was interrupted due to insufficient government subsidies. Then the marquise invested the missing amount from her own savings. And already in 1753, classes began in the partially rebuilt premises of the school. In the future, the tax that Louis imposed on card game lovers helped, which went entirely towards completing the construction.
Since 1777, this educational institution began to accept the best students of provincial military schools, including 19-year-old cadet Napoleon Bonaparte who arrived for training in October 1781.
Already on her 30th birthday, the Marquise de Pompadour felt that Louis’ love fervor was drying up. She herself understood that the long-standing lung disease was doing its destructive work. Her former beauty had faded, and it was hardly possible to return her.
The cooling of the august person at all times meant the irrevocable departure of the former favorite into the shadows and further oblivion, if not disgrace.
The Marquise de Pompadour was the king's mistress for only 5 years, and for another 15 years she was a friend and closest adviser on many issues, sometimes of national importance.
The Marquise's cold reason and her iron will told her a way out of the situation. In the silence of two unremarkable Parisian streets, she rented a house with five rooms, hidden by a dense crown of trees. This house, called “Deer Park”, became the meeting place of the king with the ladies invited... by the marquise.
The king appeared here incognito, the girls took him for some important gentleman. After the king’s fleeting passion for the next beauty disappeared and remained without consequences, the girl, provided with a dowry, was married off. If the matter ended with the appearance of a child, then after his birth the baby, together with his mother, received a very significant annuity. The Marquise continued to remain the official favorite of His Majesty.
But in 1751, a real danger appeared in the person of a very young Irish woman, Marie-Louise o'Murphy, who shamelessly encroached on the laurels of the Marquise of Pompadour.
Half of Europe watched the development of this intrigue. The papal ambassador reported to Rome that Pompadour's days were numbered: “Apparently, the main sultana is losing her position.” He made a mistake. Louis left the Marquise all her privileges. And more than once she emerged victorious in single combats with young beauties, as well as with her very experienced political opponents. Although the situation worsened significantly after diplomatic negotiations between the Marquise de Pompadour and the Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa, which led to a change in the allied relations between the two countries. In 1756, France, a traditional ally of Prussia, sided with Austria. In addition, Louis, under pressure from his favorite, who vehemently hated the Jesuits, banned the activities of their order in France.
This kind of change too clearly affected the interests of high-ranking officials for the marquise to feel invulnerable. And she understood this. The food prepared for her was carefully checked - of all the ways to eliminate unwanted food, poisoning remained difficult to prove.
The unexpected death of her only daughter, whom the marquise had hoped to marry to the king's illegitimate son, brought her, who had rare self-control, to the brink of madness. Suspecting the machinations of enemies, the Marquise demanded an autopsy, but it did not yield any results.
Having a hard time experiencing this grief, the Marquise felt her loneliness more acutely than ever before. Her closest friend turned out to be a spy for her opponents. The king increasingly turned into a forgiving friend.
A mental crisis forced the marquise to think about a possible distance from the court. She even wrote a letter to her husband, asking for forgiveness for the offense she had caused him and clearly groping for a way to return to the long-abandoned family shelter. D'Etiolle immediately replied that he readily forgives her, but there was no talk of more...
By 1760, the amounts allocated by the royal treasury for the maintenance of the marquise decreased by 8 times. She sold jewelry and played cards - she was usually lucky. But the treatment required a lot of money, and they had to borrow it. Already being seriously ill, she even acquired a lover. But what is the Marquis of Choiseul compared to the king!
The marquise, who still accompanied Louis everywhere, suddenly lost consciousness on one of his trips. Soon everyone realized that the end was near. And although only royalty had the right to die in Versailles, Louis ordered her to be moved to the palace apartments.
On April 15, 1764, the royal chronicler recorded: "The Marquise de Pompadour, lady-in-waiting of the Queen, died about 7 o'clock in the evening in the King's private apartments, aged 43 years."
As the funeral procession turned towards Paris, Louis, standing on the palace balcony in the pouring rain, said: “What disgusting weather you chose for your last walk, madame!” Behind this seemingly completely inappropriate joke was hidden true sadness.
The Marquise de Pompadour was buried next to her mother and daughter in the tomb of the Capuchin monastery. Now at the site of her burial there is Rue de la Paix, which runs through the territory of the monastery that was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century.
Which for 20 years had a huge influence on government affairs and patronized the sciences and arts.
| Marquise de Pompadour | |
|---|---|
| marquise de pompadour | |
| Birth name | Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson |
| Date of Birth | December 29th(1721-12-29 ) […] |
| Place of Birth | Paris, France |
| Date of death | April 15(1764-04-15 ) […] (42 years) |
| A place of death | Paris, France |
| A country | |
| Occupation | owner of a literary salon, politician |
| Father | Francois Poisson |
| Mother | Madeleine de la Motte |
| Spouse | Charles Guillaume Le Normant d'Étiolles [d] |
| Children | Alexandrina-Jeanne d'Etiolles |
| Marquise de Pompadour at Wikimedia Commons | |
Childhood
She came from a family of financiers, actually from the third estate. Her father, François Poisson, speculated on the black market, but in 1725 he went bankrupt and fled France, leaving his wife and children in the care of the syndic Lenormand de Tournhem. Thanks to this man, the girl received an education befitting the wife of an aristocrat: she knew music, painted, sang, acted on stage, and recited.
On the night of February 25–26, 1745, a yew ball was given in the Gallery of Mirrors on the occasion of the marriage of the Dauphin. The courtiers put on yew tree costumes, the king himself appeared in a mask, Jeanne Antoinette arrived in the costume of the goddess of the hunt. Even then they noticed that the king did not want to communicate with anyone except the beautiful stranger. Three days later they met again at a ball in the capital's town hall.
Soon Madame d'Etiol took the vacant position as official favorite. At Versailles, several rooms were placed at her disposal, located directly above the royal chambers and connected to them by a secret staircase. In July, the king gave her the estate of Pompadour in the Limousin region, along with the title of marquise. After receiving a lucrative sinecure, her husband gave her a divorce.
A year later, the king presented his girlfriend with a 6-hectare plot of Versailles Park, where a modest “Hermitage” was erected. Another 2 years later, the marquise acquired the La Celle manor house nearby. She had a whole staff of maids of honor at her service. In relation to Queen Maria Leszczynska, she behaved with emphatic respect. The queen was 7 years older than her husband, deeply religious, and after the birth of her 10th child she told the loving Louis that she no longer intended to share a bed with him.
Position at court
Historians of the 19th century, who denied talent to the Bourbons of the pre-revolutionary decades, described Louis as a depraved, lazy and worthless ruler, in whose place the energetic Madame Pompadour ruled the country. Around 1750, the marquise, on the advice of doctors, stopped spending nights in the king's bedroom. Since then, their relationship has been platonic in nature (similar to the relationship between the elderly Louis XIV and the Marquise de Maintenon). She moved from the attic apartments to more spacious ones and occupied the luxurious Hotel d'Evreux in the capital. Promotions still had to be addressed to her personally. The Marquise was in charge of all court receptions and amusements, and personally selected young mistresses for the king, for meetings with whom the so-called so-called court was allocated. Deer Park.
Entertainment, buildings, and Pompadour outfits were quite expensive. Over twenty years at court, she spent 350,035 livres on her toilets; she owned over three hundred pieces of jewelry, including a diamond necklace worth 9,359 francs. She loved champagne and regularly ordered truffle and celery soup soaked in flavored chocolate. Her name was given to her high hairstyle with a roller, the furnishings in the apartments (style “à la Reine”), buildings, and costumes. She set fashion throughout Europe with her ability to look luxurious and at the same time seem at ease.
Participation in government affairs
The foreign policy of France in the mid-18th century led to a deterioration in its position in the international arena, but this should be blamed not so much on the Marquis as on the lack of state talent among the highest aristocracy. The Marquise removed Cardinal Berni from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, appointing instead her favorite, the Duke of Choiseul, and he persuaded the king to an alliance with Austria, which meant a revision of the centuries-old principles of European foreign policy.
The Seven Years' War, which flared up soon after, was unsuccessful for France, and public opinion blamed it not on the rotten social system, but on the Marquise de Pompadour. It is known that she nominated the Duke of Richelieu as commander, despite his bad reputation. News of defeats on the battlefields intensified her melancholy. She died shortly after the end of the war, presumably from lung cancer. One of her last acts was a review of the case of Jean Calas, on which Voltaire insisted.
According to contemporaries, Louis eventually became so distant from Jeanne Antoinette that he accepted the news of the death of his “precious friend” quite indifferently. She was only 42 years old. Farewell to the marquise took place in her Versailles mansion. She was buried next to her mother and daughter in the crypt of the Capuchin monastery, which was located on the site of Place Vendôme.
Patronage of the arts
Madame de Pompadour's favorite style was Rococo. She patronized Francois Boucher and other representatives of this trend - painters, sculptors, cabinetmakers. Her brother, the Marquis de Marigny, was in charge of all construction work, which was carried out at public expense. Under his leadership, the ensembles of Place Louis XV and the military school on the Champ de Mars, the Petit Trianon, a new wing of the residence at Fontainebleau were created, and almost the entire Compiegne Palace was rebuilt. The Marquise herself carried out large construction work on various estates and estates, including Bellevue Palace.
King Louis was indifferent to literature, but the Marquise herself knew a lot about it. Her inner circle included the writers Duclos and Marmontel. She saved old Crebillon from poverty by giving him the position of librarian. She stood up for encyclopedists and for the Encyclopedia.
Voltaire sincerely admired her, although at the same time he laughed at her bourgeois manners.
Baroque era... A majestic figure of a woman with a proud look of dark eyes, shrouded in regular folds of heavy silk.
She was born in the family castle, grew up breathing the aroma of monastery incense, lived in the austere halls and gardens of Louis XIV and died in the monastery chambers of Saint-Cyr.
And to replace her, from the sparkling foam of life, another figure emerged. Flirty, graceful, wearing a powdered wig on her small head and flecks. There is no law for her except her whim.
Somewhere people worked and suffered, somewhere world issues were being resolved and the future catastrophe of France was being prepared.
Silk curtains tightly closed the door to the elegant boudoir. And here, among the aromas and powder, reigned the always laughing, always capricious god of pleasures - Rococo.
And the queen of this kingdom was the Marquise of Pompadour.
The age of beauty... And everything beautiful in art, literature, craft bears the stamp of the Marquise of Pompadour.
On December 29, 1721, François Poisson, master of the horse at the court of the Duke of Orleans, gave birth to a daughter. They gave her the name Jeanne Antoinette.
Francois Poisson, involved in one very ugly case in the commissariat, was sentenced to hanging and was saved only by fleeing to Germany.
Little Zhanna remained in the arms of her mother, a very beautiful and intelligent woman, but apparently not of strict morals.
There is strong reason to believe that Jeanne's real father was not François Poisson, but General Lenor-mand-de-Tournehem. In any case, he took a very active part in the fate of Jeanne.
First of all, he took care to give her an excellent upbringing and education, and then decided to marry her to his nephew.
And so on March 9, 1741, and in Paris, in the church of St. Eutychia, fifteen-year-old Jeanne Poisson married Karl Lenormand d Etiol. A short, ugly groom, a slender bride with an interesting pale face.
For the wedding, the general gave his nephew half of his estates, and promised to leave the rest after his death.
Young d'Etiol married for love, Mademoiselle Poisson married for convenience.
She looked at her marriage as an inevitable stage of her life. When she was nine years old, a fortune teller predicted that she would be the king's favorite.
Mlle Poisson firmly believed in this prediction and spent her entire life preparing for it.
After getting married, Zhanna, despite her young age, managed to gather interesting people around her. At the castle of Etiol, where she settled, she visited many writers, artists, scientists - among them there were such big names as Abbe Berni, Voltaire, Fontenelle.
Through them she became acquainted with art, literature, and politics.
You couldn't say she was beautiful, but she was charming. A very pale, endlessly mobile face, beautiful eyes, the color of which could not be determined - sometimes they seemed black, sometimes blue, a charming smile, magnificent blond hair, beautiful hands, a slender figure of average height.
She knew her appearance very well and knew how to use it.
She had a lovely daughter, Alexandra, whom she loved dearly.
With a charming smile, fanning herself with a fan on which Gabrielle d'Estrée was painted, and at her feet Henry IV, she told her many fans: “Only with the king could I cheat on my husband.”
The most evil tongues at that time could not say anything bad about her - her life was impeccable.
However, she could often be found near Etiol, in the forests of Senard, where royal hunts took place.
She is in a blue and pink riding habit, with a falcon in her hand, like a medieval lady... Or she is in a blue chaise, all in pink. They noticed her, they started talking about her, they called her the nymph of the forests of Senar.
The king involuntarily drew attention to the Amazon dressed in the colors of the morning dawn. The king's curious gaze meets the gaze of Madame Etiol's unfaithful eyes.
Madame Chateauroux was near Louis XV at that time. She did not like the appearance of a young Amazon on his horizon. Madame Etiol was made to understand this.
She stopped appearing on royal hunts, but her goal in life was still the king.
In 1745, the city of Paris organized a large masquerade in honor of the Dauphin's engagement. Madame Etiol knew that the king would be there. Countess Chateauroux had suddenly died shortly before, and now the king was free.
At the ball, Louis XV was approached by an elegant mask dressed as Diana the Huntress. The king became interested in her witty conversation, but the mask disappeared, having, however, managed to drop the handkerchief scented with fine perfume.
A few days later, in Versailles, at a performance of the Italian Comedy, Madame Etiol's box was very close to the royal one. After some time, the king dined alone with Madame Etiol.
After this dinner, Louis seemed frightened of his new hobby and did not think about Madame Etiol for many days. His valet Binet, a distant relative of Madame Etiol, tried in vain to remind him of her.
Finally, the king finally talked about her with Binet. He admitted that he really liked her, but she seemed more ambitious and domineering than loving. Binet assured him, of course, that Madame Etiol was madly in love with him and now, having cheated on her husband who adored her with him, she was thinking only about death.
The king wished to see Madame Etiol again.
Now she was more careful. Deeply concealing her ambition and power, she was before the king only an infinitely loving woman. In response to her tenderness, she felt that she was now strong, but it was important for her not to leave Versailles. And so, still in the arms of the king, Madame Etiol began to despair of what awaited her at home, she assured the king that she was madly afraid of her husband, that he had been jealous of her before, but now his anger would be terrible. The king believed her fear and tears and invited her to temporarily take refuge from her husband’s wrath in the distant chambers of the Palace of Versailles.
To be honest, Madame Etiol's husband was more pathetic than terrible. He sincerely loved his wife, and when his uncle, General Lenormand, told him that she had left him, he lost consciousness, and when he came to his senses, he tried to take his own life many times. Expelled by the king from Paris, he was seriously ill for a long time in Avignon.
When Louis XV left to join his troops in Flanders, Madame Etiol did not go with him. She settled in Etiol and lived there very secluded, occupied almost exclusively with correspondence with the king. Meanwhile, the rooms at Versailles that had previously been occupied by the late Madame Chateauroux were being decorated for her. Madame Etiol knew that with the arrival of the king she would be declared the official favorite. One of the king's last letters was addressed to her no longer as Madame Etiol, but as the Marquise of Pompadour - the letter contained documents for this title.
A few days after the king's return from Flanders, the new marquise was presented to the court.
She was very worried, but she coped with her task smartly and tactfully. Only for one moment was she at a loss - it was with the queen.
Queen Maria Leszczynska had long ceased to be jealous of the king, and the Marquise of Pompadour was for her only a new name, and not a new grief. And now, when the marquise was preparing to hear from the queen a banal phrase prepared in advance about her toilet, Maria Leshchinskaya suddenly affectionately asked her about a lady she knew. The Marquise was confused, and an awkward but sincere exclamation escaped her:
“My most ardent desire is to please Your Majesty.”
The marquise's embarrassment quickly passed, and she remained grateful to the queen for a long time for her kind words.
The hallmark of the 18th century in France, the age of laughter and play, was boredom. Boredom reigned everywhere. It arose below, where it led to frequent suicides, increased with the levels of position and wealth, and its full embodiment seemed to be King Louis XV himself. Boredom was the only mistress to whom he was faithful all his life, boredom was that evil genius, obedient to whom Louis said: “After us there may be a flood.”
Handsome, charming, surrounded not only by courtiers, but also by sincere friends, the king was bored. And so, armed with her lively mind and taste, the marquise decided to make the king not get bored. And the whole secret of her influence on Louis was in her ability to achieve this. For this, she had the rare gift of never being monotonous in anything, starting with her appearance. Always unexpected, always smart and interesting in a new way, she quickly managed to completely capture the mind and soul of the lazy, apathetic king.
Not a single small cloud on the forehead of her royal lover can hide from her watchful eye. She knows how to drive him away with her affection, her gaiety. Sna plays the harpsichord, sings, and tells a new joke.
From her earliest youth, the marquise loved the arts and practiced them. Now, when by the will of fate she approached the French court, arts and literature approached with her.
Although Louis XV personally was indifferent to all this, she managed to interest him too.
Twice a week, artists, writers, philosophers gathered in her salon - Bouchardon, Boucher, Latour, Verna, the architect Gabriel, Voltaire... Interesting topics of conversation and heated debates arose. The marquise took a great part in this, and the king unwittingly began to take part in this.
In the Choisy Palace, according to the Marquise, a theater called “Theater of the Small Chambers” appears, an intimate, elegant theater for forty spectators.
Gabriel built this theater according to the marquise’s personal plan, and her favorite artist Boucher painted it inside. The entrance ticket was a small card on which a flirtatious Columbine was drawn, next to her was the loving Leander, and the deceived Pierrot peeked out from behind the curtain. The audience was almost always the royal family, headed by Louis XV, and relatives and friends of the marquises. Sitting on a simple chair, the king could watch the performance without tiring etiquette.
The troupe was not made up of professional actors, but courtiers who achieved it as a great honor to play here. The main actors were Moritz of Saxony, the Duke of Duras, Richelieu, D'Estrad, the director was the Duke de La Vallière. The Marquise of Pompadour was in charge and the first actress was
Back in Etiol, she staged performances and proved herself to be a good actress and a pleasant singer. Now she could turn around and show all the subtlety and grace of female coquetry, all the charm and tenderness of her flexible voice. Indeed, where, besides the theater, can one be so beautiful in so many ways, one can change so many captivating looks! A tender shepherdess, a passionate odalisque, a proud Roman... What scope there was for the marquise’s delicate taste. Not for nothing, after one of the performances, Louis told her: “You are the most charming woman in France.”
The theater's repertoire was also composed by the marquise herself. At the opening there was Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe", followed by plays by Voltaire, Rousseau, Crebillon.
After the performance, the king and those closest to him, no more than fourteen people, usually stayed for dinner. The invitees entered with him into the elegantly furnished salon, on the walls of which there were paintings by Latour, Watteau, and Boucher. The subject of this painting was luxurious feasts, but in the salon itself there was no hint of dinner.
When the king crossed the threshold, two pages approached him and asked for orders about the beginning. As soon as the king had time to make a sign that it could be served, the floor parted and, as in Armida’s palace, a luxuriously decorated table rose from below. The pages quickly brought in food and dinner began. There was no drunkenness or revelry here. They ate light, tasty dishes, drank fine wines, and had cheerful, elegant conversations, the slight piquancy of which never turned into obscenity.
The king should not be bored - that is the goal of the marquise. Therefore, during fasting, when various entertainments are prohibited, she organizes spiritual concerts in the palace, where she herself sings.
When she feels that the king is already tired of entertainment, she takes him on trips. He visits unfamiliar cities of his kingdom, receives greetings from his subjects who have never seen him before.
The influence of the Marquise on Louis could not please the courtiers. She came not from their circle, but from the bourgeoisie. Everything about her, from her manners to her language, shocked the strict etiquette of the court. The Dauphin and the king's daughters were against her, the queen was silent and was neither for nor against.
But the marquise was ambitious. Her influence on the king’s personality did not satisfy her - she wanted influence on the entire politics of France. And despite the protests of the court and Paris, which was restored against her by court circles, pouring out all its anger at her in a whole series of songs called “poissonades” after her maiden name, the marquise firmly moves towards her goal.
Among entertainment and travel, she gets acquainted with the affairs of the kingdom.
The marquise was never mistaken about her enemies and appreciated them. In contrast to them, she makes every effort to make friends. But she didn't do well with the latter. This was hampered by two of her major shortcomings - she was vindictive and vindictive. She never forgave anything, and her loved ones feared her more than they loved her.
Regarding the Dauphin, her revenge was powerless, but with her other enemies the Marquise was merciless. She sought the resignation of Orry, the Minister of Finance, who was very popular. The favorite of King Maurep was expelled from Paris for mocking couplets about her.
The marquise fights respectfully but firmly with the royal family, arrogantly with the courtiers, successfully with the Jesuits, patiently with parliament.
The power of the marquise becomes stronger every day. She becomes the unofficial ruler of France. Foreign powers are seeking her favor. Through her, Empress Maria Theresa seeks an alliance with France, thanks to which a seven-year war with Germany and England, unsuccessful for France, arises.
At her court, the marquise introduces strict etiquette. In her waiting room there is only one chair for her, everyone who comes must stand. Under the pretext of frequent ill health, she did not get up even in the presence of the princes of the blood. At the theater she sat in the royal box; in the chapel of Versailles a special dais was built for her. The staff of her house consisted of sixty people. Her traveling footman was from an impoverished but ancient noble family.
In her greatness, the marquise wanted to, as it were, erase her humble origins. The marquise turns her father, Monsieur Poisson, into a peer of France, the owner of the de Mareny estate, her brother into the Marquise de Védrier, later the Marquise de Mareny. She buys from the Crequi family their crypt in the Capuchin Church on Place Vendôme and transfers her body there mother.
But the main subject of her concerns and ambitious plans is her only and dearly beloved daughter Alexandra, similar to her mother in character and appearance. She was brought up in the aristocratic monastery d'Assomption, where she was called, like children of royal blood, by the name: Alexandra. The Marquise prepared a brilliant future for her. But fate shatters all her dreams. Ten years old, Alexandra unexpectedly died. They suspected poison, revenge of the Jesuits, but the autopsy revealed nothing.
In general, the marquise suspected poison everywhere and warned the king against it many times. She herself did not start eating anything first. True, she had an example before her eyes - the unexpected death of Madame Chateauroux, very similar to poisoning. The marquise could not even trust her loved ones. Her relative and best friend, Madame d'Estrad turned out to be a spy for her and the mistress of her enemy, Foreign Minister Arzhanson.
Among the splendor, at the height of her power, the marquise was very lonely. She had to expend a lot of strength, both mental and physical, to stay at a decent height. Having seized power over France, the marquise forever renounced a quiet life. And many times at home, left alone with her chambermaid Madame Jose, she complained about fate and the need to wage an “eternal battle” with the people and events around her, as she called her life.
In the weak and sickly body of the Marquise of Pompadour there lived an insane energy. It seemed that she never spent a single hour of her life in inactivity. She went into everything. An art exhibition, about which she listens to the opinions of others and expresses her own... Antique dealers, from whom she often buys beautiful things for her palaces - furniture, Saxon porcelain, Chinese porcelain... Conversations with architects, artists... Arranged by her in Versailles, a printing house, where Corneille’s “Rodo-gune” and some of Voltaire’s works were printed before her eyes... Discussion with Clairon of theatrical toilets... Her personal work on etching, engraving or gems... Some of her works have come down to us - - of course, they are weaker than the works of the artists surrounding the marquise, but they are still very interesting.
The Marquise conducted a huge correspondence with many wonderful people.
“I still need to write about twenty letters,” she says, saying goodbye to her father in the evening.
The Marquise loved books, and her colossal library was not just for show. There were books on history, civil law, political economy, philosophy - from them she drew knowledge for the role she wanted to occupy in France. And indeed, if the marquise was not always competent in any matter, she always knew enough not to seem ignorant in it... In addition, she had a magnificent collection of books on the theater and the arts in general.
But most of all the Marquise had books about love: Novels of Spanish, Italian, French writers, chivalric novels, heroic, historical, moralistic, political, satirical, comic, fantastic. Her library was the temple of the novel. Reading, the marquise experienced thousands of lives devoted to love, and, escaping from reality, took a break from it in another, created life.
According to the Marquise, a military school was founded. The Marquise herself supervises the construction of the building, and even she personally drew designs for some of its decorations.
French tapestries long ago defeated oriental carpets, French crystal was as beautiful as Venetian, but French porcelain could not compete with Saxon and Chinese.
The Marquise, who loved him and understood a lot about him, set out to create French porcelain that would be better than Saxon porcelain. In 1756, the state porcelain factory, formerly in Vincennes, was transferred to Sèvres.
Magnificent buildings are being built here for artists and factory workers. The buildings are surrounded by beautiful gardens with fountains and charming bosquets. In the distance you can see a dense forest where those living at the plant can hunt.
Under the supervision of a master who has the secret of making good porcelain paste and coloring it, there are five hundred people working, of whom sixty are experienced artists.
The Marquise chose Sèvres as the place of her usual walks. She encourages artists, gives them advice, helps them choose colors and shapes. The beautiful pink color invented during her time is named after her “Rose Pompadour”.
Very quickly, Sevres' works reach extraordinary heights, and they are not afraid of comparisons with Saxon and Chinese porcelain.
To distribute Sevres products, the Marquise arranges an exhibition of them in Versailles, where she sells them herself.
While trading, she praises them so convincingly that it is difficult not to buy from her.
One day, during a walk in Sèvres, the marquise was captivated by the landscape spread out before her. She stood on a charming green hill, from where she could see Versailles, Saint-Cloud and even further Saint-Germain. The Marquise decided to build a palace here.
On a beautiful summer day, she gathers architects, artists, gardeners here and, sitting on the green grass, discusses the construction plan with them.
And so, under the leadership of the architect Landureau, the artists Bush, Vanloo and the gardener Delisle, the Belle Vue Palace grew on a picturesque hill, as in a fairy tale.
In the first courtyard there were two buildings - one for stables, the other for theatrical performances. Next is the second courtyard, surrounded on three sides by the palace buildings, and on the fourth it is adjoined by a garden with a terrace, overlooking the Seine, the Bois de Boulogne, and the green islands and villages. From the terrace to the Seine a green staircase of blooming oranges and lemons descended, and in the park, under a dome of trees, stood a bust of the king and the marquise.
The interior of the palace was no less beautiful. Paintings, marble, porcelain... The Marquise understood and loved beauty.
On the day of the king's first visit to Belle Vue, the ballet Cupid the Architect, an elegant joke on the theme of the construction of Belle Vue, was performed in a theater decorated in Chinese style. In the evening, after the performance, the marquise took the king to the winter garden.
Many lights were burning, thousands of flowers were wafting their scent. The king was surprised that the marquise, as usual, did not pick flowers for him and decided to do it himself. But it was impossible to pick the flowers - they were made of Sèvres porcelain, and their cups were filled with perfume corresponding to each one.
The Marquise possessed not only the Belle Vue Palace. She often bought new lands and palaces and sometimes sold them at a great loss. Her domains were huge, and she visited many of them very rarely. The great Palace of Cressy, which cost a colossal sum, the small Palace of La Celle, a simple little pavilion near the Park of Versailles, decorated with Persian wallpaper and picturesque panels, surrounded by a garden, which was a bosquet of roses, in the greenery of which a white, marble Adonis took refuge; a small house in Fontainebleau with many chickens of different breeds, a house in Compiegne; luxurious palace in Paris.
In general, none of the ideas seems too expensive to the marquise, and she, without hesitation, buys everything that she would like to see as hers. But despite the fact that these purchases cost France very much, their total amount cannot be compared with another figure. What cost France the most was the entire galaxy of architects, artists, sculptors and gardeners whom the Marquise took with her to each of her possessions, where they remade everything from start to finish to her taste. It cost the state thirty million livres.
The Marquise did not limit herself to rebuilding her palaces and the houses she occupied. She also remodeled all the king's palaces in which he received her. In this, as in everything, the marquise tried to find entertainment for the bored king. She wanted none of his palaces to be similar to the other and to be interesting to him in a new way.
The life of the Marquise of Pompadour was not only an “eternal battle” with the intrigues of enemies, but also an “eternal battle” with herself, a battle with her soul, with her weak, painful body, even with her cold temperament.
They always see her cheerful, calm, with a smile and a song on her lips. Only from the notes of her chambermaid Madame Jose, which have reached us, do we learn her intimate life, her sleepless nights, full of anxiety and tears.
"My dear! I'm afraid of losing the king's heart, of no longer being pleasant to him. You know, men attach great importance to certain things, and unfortunately I have a very cold temperament. I decided to apply a somewhat stimulating regimen to myself in order to correct this shortcoming, and in these two days this elixir helped me. or at least that's what I thought."
This is what the Marquise says to her friend, the Duchess of Branca.
To excite her temperament, she also drinks chocolate with a lot of vanilla and eats a salad of celery and truffles.
But the king’s attitude towards her is no longer the same.
When Damien wounded him with a dagger in 1757, the marquise, locked in her chambers for eleven days, did not know what awaited her. She cried, fainted, came to her senses, cried again and fainted again. Doctor Kezne from the king's chambers constantly went to her and back, trying as best he could to calm her down. The king himself did not invite her and did not make himself known.
After eleven days of painful waiting, the king sent his minister Machaut, her protege, to the marquise with an order on behalf of the king to immediately leave the Palace of Versailles.
The Marquise had already decided to carry out this order, but one of her friends, the marshal's wife, Mirenois, dissuaded her. Pretending to leave the palace, the marquise actually remained there, waiting for events to happen. It was not in vain that the marquise followed Madame Mirenois’s advice; a few days later the king saw her, and she again took her position.
Minister Machaut resigned.X
The day came when the marquise had to give up hope of keeping the king-lover.
Exhausted by internal and external struggle, entertainment through force, under the eternal fear of her rivals, she could not bear it, and her poor health began to deteriorate.
She easily defeated the king's first betrayals.
The seductive Made Mauselle Choiseul-Romanet is eliminated and unexpectedly dies (there is a suspicion that she was poisoned on the orders of the Marquise). But now the marquise understood that it was no longer so simple. And so she decides to take an action that has branded her for centuries. With her permission, the so-called “Deer Park” arises, something like a small harem for the king, where there were no more than two girls at a time. The girls did not know who their lover was. They were hinted that this was a Polish prince, a relative of the queen. Modest, uneducated girls were not afraid of the marquise. “I need his heart,” she said about the king.
When one of the girls became pregnant, she was taken from there, the child was provided for, and the mother was married off to the provinces with a small dowry. All this was arranged by the marquise herself, and it is difficult to say whether she took on this ambiguous role in the name of love or in the name of ambition.
With a compressed heart and a cold mind, the Marquise of Pompadour became no longer a lover, but a friend and confidant of King Louis.
She leaves the upper intimate chambers of the Palace of Versailles and settles below, where only princes of the blood lived before her. And as if announcing to everyone a change in her position, she erects her statue in the form of the Goddess of Friendship in Belle Vue Park.
But now it was important for the marquise to have an official position at court, and the king asks the queen to accept her into his retinue.
But even the meek Maria Leshchinskaya was outraged by this request. Not having the courage to directly refuse the king, she says that she cannot accept a woman who abandoned her husband and was condemned by the church for this.
1 when the marquise writes to her husband, Monsieur Lenorman D Etiol, a letter full of repentance, where, realizing all her mistakes, all her guilt before him, she begs to forgive her and take her back to her.
At the same time as this letter, a trusted man is sent to tell him that if he does not wish to incur the king's displeasure, he is advised to refuse.
The marquise's husband had long since come to terms with his fate and lived, amusing himself with wine and light love affairs. The marquise received a polite answer from him to her letter, where he wrote to her that with all his heart he forgave her for her guilt before him, but did not want to accept her.
Having received the impatiently awaited answer, the marquise bursts into a stream of complaints. She is guilty, she has repented, what should she do if her husband is now pushing her away, only religion can console her.
Every day in the chapel of Versailles, but not at the top, not in her place of honor, but below, in the crowd, and for a long time after the end of the service she stands kneeling at the altar.
After much hesitation and indecision by the Jesuit Father de Sassi, after her letter to the Pope, she finally receives the forgiveness of the church. Maria Leshchinskaya now has no choice but to submit to the will of the king.
“Sovereign! I have one king in heaven, who gives me strength to endure my grief, and one king on earth, to whose will I am always submissive,” she says to the king, accepting the new lady into her retinue.
The marquise did not forget the hostile attitude of the Jesuits during her repentance. Twelve years later the Jesuits were expelled from France.
The king, connected with the marquise solely by the force of habit and her mind, was looking for new love. His short novels in Deer Park did not satisfy him. The marquise's enemies tried to nominate a new favorite.
A long line of women passes in front of the king, each of whom brings several days of anxiety and grief to the marquise.
When Mademoiselle Roman appears on the king's horizon, the marquise sees that the king is already truly in love.
Mademoiselle Roman had a son with Louis.
With a beating heart, the marquise goes to the Bois de Boulogne, where on the grass, having pinned her luxurious black hair with a diamond comb, Mademoiselle Roman breastfeeds her son, Louis of Bourbon. Covering her face with a handkerchief, as if from a severe toothache, the marquise watches her and even speaks to her.
Returning home, she sadly says to Madame Jose, “I must admit, both mother and child are very beautiful.”
But this romance of the king, more serious than others, did not break the chains with which he was chained to the Marquise of Pompadour. This victory calms the Marquise somewhat, but she, while still cheerful on the outside, is sad, disappointed and lonely.
“The older I get, my dear brother, the more philosophical my opinions become. I'm sure you think the same. Apart from the happiness of being with the king, which, of course, consoles me in everything, everything else is just a fabric of anger, vulgarity, - in general, of all the sins that poor humanity is capable of. Good material for reflection, especially for those who, like me, were born philosophizing over everything,” she writes to her brother
In another letter she says:
“Wherever there are people, you will find all the vices, lies, everything they are capable of. Living alone would be very boring, so you need to tolerate their shortcomings and pretend that you don’t notice them.”
But of all the marquise’s griefs, the greatest was that instead of the glory of France, with which her name would have been associated for centuries, her interference in the affairs of the state brought ruin and unhappy wars to the country.
She repeats, laughing: “After us there may be a flood.”
But in fact, she was very concerned about her name in posterity.
“You need to give up all thoughts of fame. This is a difficult necessity, but it is the only thing left for us. He may still need your zeal and devotion to the king,” she writes to the Duke of Etion during the Seven Years’ War.
When she saw that all her dreams of fame had failed, she really gave them up, and was forever dejected by it.
A person close to her, her favorite minister and, they say, even her lover, the Duke of Choiseul, says about her:
“I’m afraid that melancholy will take over her completely and she will die of grief.”
How strange this sounds. The all-powerful Marquise of Pompadour, dying of grief.
Already in 1756, the marquise began to feel very ill. But she strenuously hides her illnesses from the king. A cheerful smile and skillful makeup masked her sickly appearance from prying eyes.
Once upon a time, a fortune teller predicted the Marquise’s brilliant rise. And now, in disguise, with her nose glued on, the marquise makes her way to another fortune teller to find out how she will die. She receives the answer: “You will have time to repent.”
This prediction, like the first, came true.
The marquise had bleeding from her throat as a child. Her life completely ruined her health. But she did not want to give up until the last opportunity.
In 1764, after one pleasure walk in Choisy, she fell ill. Around her are several friends, the Duke of Choiseul, Mademoiselle Mirepoix and Prince Soubise, her most devoted person.
A few days before death there was an unexpected improvement. The Marquise was transported to the Palace of Versailles.
Here, in the palace, where, according to etiquette, only princes of the blood could die, the Marquise of Pompadour died. She died calm and still beautiful, despite her illness.
As her end approached, the king personally told her that it was time to take communion.
She could not lie down because of shortness of breath and sat covered with pillows in a chair, suffering greatly. Before her death, she sketches a drawing of the beautiful facade of the Church of St. Magdalene in Paris.
When the priest St. Magdalene was about to leave, she told him with a smile: “Wait a minute, Holy Father, we will leave together.”
A few minutes later she died.
She was 42 years old and ruled France for twenty years. Of these, only the first five she was the king's beloved.
Before her death, she ordered to put on a monastic dress, a large rosary of the Franciscan Order and a wooden cross on her chest. Now after her death, her body was taken out of Versailles.
It rained heavily on the day of the funeral. The king, together with his valet Champlost, stood on the balcony with his head uncovered, watching her funeral procession pass by the palace.
When she disappeared around the corner, his eyes were full of tears: “This is the only honor I can show her.”
The Marquise appointed Prince Soubise as her executor. Everything in the will was clearly thought out; she drew it up with love for objects of art, which she left behind in huge quantities. In this, as in all her life, she was more an esthete than a good Christian. She rewarded friendship, but at the same time protected her numerous collections for the future.
She was buried in a crypt on Place Vendôme, where her mother’s coffin already stood.
Diderot speaks cruelly about her: “So, what remains of this woman who has destroyed so many human lives, spent so much money, left us without honor and energy and destroyed the political system of Europe? The Treaty of Versailles, which will last for a certain time, the Cupid of Bouchardon, which will always be admired, a few engraved stones that will delight the antiquarians of the future, a pretty little painting by Vanloo, which will be looked at sometimes, and ... a handful of ashes.”
But the Marquise loved art, loved literature, and the names of Boucher, Fragonard, Latour, Vanloo, Grez, Montesquieu, Voltaire and many other important people of her era have surrounded her appearance for centuries with a halo.
History is against her, but art is for her.
She revealed the secret that all women in the world are puzzling over - how to keep a man around you for 20 years, if he is not even a husband...
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson was born in 1721. It is still not entirely clear who the girl’s real father was: a footman who became a quartermaster, stole in his new position and fled from justice, abandoning his family; or the nobleman Norman de Tournham, who regularly gave money for the maintenance and education of little Jeanne.
François Boucher. The Marquise de Pompadour, 1755.
When the girl was 9 years old, her mother decided to take her to one of the most famous fortune tellers of that time - Madame Lebon. The fortune teller looked carefully at the fragile, ugly girl and made a prophecy: “This little one will one day become the king’s favorite!”
So, Jeanne Antoinette is 19 years old, she is not beautiful, not rich, and not in good health. What are her chances of making a decent match? Oddly enough, a groom for Jeanne was found quickly enough - a certain Charles de Etiol, nephew of Norman de Tournham. Charles, of course, is not a fairy-tale prince, but he is from a good family, and also rich. Another would have grabbed such a proposal with her hands and feet, someone else, but not Jeanne Antoinette. She drags on and on with a final answer. Cause? A prediction made by Madame Le Bon 10 years ago. What kind of Charles is there if there may be a king in the future?
F. Boucher. Marquise de Pompadour.
To become the king's mistress, you first need to be seen by the king. Young Jeanne begins to regularly travel to the Senard forest, where the king used to hunt. The first time the king drove past, the second time he stopped and looked carefully at Mademoiselle Poisson... After which a man came to her mother, conveying the “request” of the Marquise de Chateauroux (the then favorite of Louis) “to relieve the king from the annoying attention of Mademoiselle Poisson.”
François Boucher. Marquise de Pompadour 1750.
This was the collapse of her hopes. Jeanne marries Charles de Etiol, but does not cross the king off the list. After all, the fortune teller didn’t say that she would be a queen, she would be a favorite, which means she needs to be as close to the court as possible.
Nattier Jean-Marc. Portrait of Louis XV.
In 1744, the Marquise de Chateauroux unexpectedly died. The court begins to be in a fever, “parties” are formed in support of one or another candidate for the role of favorite.
In March 1745, at a ball, the king's attention is attracted by a young lady dressed as Diana the Huntress. The charming mask intrigues him and... disappears into the crowd, having previously dropped the scented handkerchief. The king, being a gallant gentleman, picks up the handkerchief, but, unable to give it to the lady in person, throws it through the crowd. Competitors are in mourning - the scarf is thrown...
Madame de Pompadour. Jean-Marc Nattier 1748.
A few words about the character of the man for whom such a stubborn struggle was waged: Louis XV became king at the age of five. By the time he met Jeanne de Etiol, 35-year-old Louis had tried all possible pleasures and therefore... was wildly bored. Jeanne Annoinette intuitively guessed how to hook the jaded king.
Oh, women who sit in the evenings waiting for a phone call from the “one and only”, take an example from the Marquise de Pompadour: if circumstances do not favor you, create favorable circumstances yourself.
What it cost Jeanne to get a seat next to the royal box - history is silent. But no matter how much she paid for it, the dividends were received almost instantly - the king invited her to dinner... That evening Jeanne made her only mistake, which, however, could have been fatal. That evening she gave herself to the king.
Bonnet Louis Marine.
The next day, Louis, accustomed to a certain behavior of the ladies “happy” with him, prepared several polite phrases to once and for all discourage the applicant. Naive, he did not yet know who he had contacted.
Madame de Pompadour as Diana. Jean-Marc Nattier 1752.
The prudent Jeanne bribed one of the king's confidants. The “face” told Madame that the king considered her “not entirely disinterested,” and besides, the crown prince, who saw Jeanne in the theater, found her “somewhat vulgar.”
Days passed, and Diana the Huntress did not appear. Louis began to be visited by normal male doubts - maybe she didn’t like him in bed?
M. K. de Latour. Madame de Pompadour.
Probably, if Jeanne Poisson had been born at another time, she would have become a great actress. The next meeting between the king and the future favorite took place in the tradition of strong melodrama. Jeanne secretly (with the help of bribed persons) made her way into the palace and fell at the feet of the king. Wringing her hands, she told His Majesty about the insane passion that she had long harbored for him, about the danger that awaits her in the person of her jealous husband (Louis would have looked at the stunted Charles de Etiol in the role of the jealous Othello). And then - “let me die...”
It was a brilliant move - in this situation there was no such thing as boredom. The king promised Jeanne that after returning from Flanders, he would make her an official favorite.
F. Boucher 1759 Marquise de Pompadour.
On September 14, 1745, Louis officially introduced his new girlfriend to the court. The court received her with hostility: she was not of noble birth, so she received the nickname Grisette (by this, the king’s associates clearly made it clear to Jeanne that they did not see the difference between her and street girls). To put an end to the rumors, the king gives his favorite the title of Marquise de Pompadour.
Madame Pompadour in blue.
Oddly enough, the one who reacted best to the new favorite was... the king's wife, nee Maria Leshchinskaya. The queen, very pious, very correct and completely indifferent to sexual pleasures (not surprising - in the first 12 years of marriage she gave birth to 10 children to the king) felt a kindred spirit in Jeanne. She was not mistaken - the intimate side was most difficult for Zhanna. She tried all sorts of aphrodisiacs to suit her lover’s appetites.
The fact that the new favorite had “temperament problems” very soon became known to everyone. Naturally, many ladies considered this a sign from above and tried to push the marquise away from the royal bed. But, “even the most beautiful girl cannot give more than what she has.” And in the arsenal of the marquise there were a thousand and one ways to keep the king - it was enough to cheer him up.
Louis XV. Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788)
She begins to patronize talented people, and in her living room the king meets the outstanding minds of that time. Refined conversations, wonderful company... His Majesty is never bored. The Marquise was a very cynical woman; all collections of aphorisms contain her famous: “After us? Even a flood.”
Alexander Roslin. Portrait of Madame Pompadour.
But her “contribution” to the cultural heritage of mankind is not limited to this... Diamonds, the cut of which is called “marquise” (oval stones), in their shape resemble the mouth of a favorite. Champagne is bottled either in narrow tulip glasses or in cone-shaped glasses that appeared during the reign of Louis XV - this is exactly the shape of Madame de Pompadour's breasts. A small reticule handbag made of soft leather is also her invention. She introduced high heels and high hairstyles into fashion because she was short.
Boucher F. Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour.
In 1751, the first volume of the French Encyclopedia, or “Explanatory Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts,” saw the light of day, opening a new era in the knowledge and interpretation of nature and society. The author of the idea and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia is Denis Diderot. She helped another representative of the glorious galaxy of figures of the French Enlightenment, Jean Leron d'Alembert, financially, and shortly before her death she managed to secure a lifelong pension for him. Among Madame Pompadour’s wards, according to some contemporaries, was the famous creator of the monument to Peter I in St. Petersburg, the sculptor Falconet.
M. V. de Parédès Mozart by Madame de Pompadour, "Monde illustré" 1857.
The famous freethinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau, although he was offended by the marquise for not introducing him to the king, was still grateful to her for her help in staging his “Siberian Soothsayer” on stage, where the marquise performed with great success in the male role of Collin. It was with the assistance of the Marquise of Pompadour that Voltaire gained fame and a worthy place as an academician and the main historian of France, also receiving the title of court chamberlain.
François Boucher. Madame de Pompadour.
It was at the instigation of the Marquise that a Military School was created in Paris for the sons of war veterans and impoverished nobles. When the money allocated for construction runs out, the marquise contributes the missing amount. In October 1781, student Napoleon Bonaparte arrived at the school to study.
François Boucher. Presumable portrait of Jeanne Poisson.
In 1756, the Marquise founded a porcelain factory on the Sevres estate. She took an active part in the creation of Sevres porcelain. The rare pink color, obtained as a result of numerous experiments, is named in her honor - Rose Pompadour. In Versailles, the marquise arranged a large exhibition of the first batch of products, sold it herself, declaring publicly: “If someone who has money does not buy this porcelain, he is a bad citizen of his country.”
Construction was the marquise's second passion, after the theater. Her last acquisition was the Menard castle, which she never managed to use in its converted version. The principle of elegant simplicity and maximum proximity to the living world of nature was put into the planning of the parks by the Marquise. She did not like large, unregulated spaces and excessive pomp. Thickets of jasmine, entire edges of daffodils, violets, carnations, islands with gazebos in the core of shallow lakes, rose bushes of the marquise’s favorite “hue of dawn” - these are her preferences in landscape art.
The most successful mistress of France aroused jealousy not only among hundreds of other contenders for a place in the royal bedroom. Recognized culinary masters secretly envied the “marquise-nurse” who had invaded their territory. Others admired her. Evidence of this is dozens of culinary masterpieces dedicated to Pompadour. There are legendary lamb chops, pheasant croquettes, young lamb tournedos with Perigue sauce, chopped goose liver aspic, tongue and mushroom aspic with truffles in Madeira sauce, apricot dessert, and small petit fours...
By 1751, the Marquise realized that she would not be able to hold the king’s attention for long - sooner or later he would turn his gaze to younger women - Madame de Pompadour took this matter into her own hands. The Marquise de Pompadour was the king's mistress for only 5 years, and for another 15 years she was a friend and closest adviser on many issues, sometimes of national importance.
François Boucher.
The Marquise's cold reason and her iron will told her a way out of the situation. In the silence of two unremarkable Parisian streets, she rented a house with five rooms, hidden by a dense crown of trees. This house, called “Deer Park”, became the meeting place of the king with the ladies invited... by the marquise.
Jean-Marc Nattier. Marquise de Pompadour (1722-1764).
The king appeared here incognito, the girls took him for some important gentleman. After the king’s fleeting passion for the next beauty disappeared and remained without consequences, the girl, provided with a dowry, was married off. If the matter ended with the appearance of a child, then after his birth the baby, together with his mother, received a very significant annuity. Numerous mistresses are selected under the personal guidance of the Marquise. But none of them last longer than a year. The Marquise continued to remain the official favorite of His Majesty.
The Marquise will introduce Louis to Louison Morphy. The relationship will last two years, but one day, deciding that now she can do everything, Louison will ask His Majesty: “How is the old coquette doing?” Three days later, Louison, along with the daughter she gave birth to from Louis, leaves the famous house in Deer Park forever. By 1760, the amounts allocated by the royal treasury for the maintenance of the marquise decreased by 8 times. In the spring of 1764, the Marquise de Pompadour became seriously ill. She sold jewelry and played cards - she was usually lucky. But the treatment required a lot of money, and they had to borrow it. Already being seriously ill, she even acquired a lover. But what is the Marquis of Choiseul compared to the king!
Madame Pompadour as a Vestal by Fran. David M. Stewart 1763.
The marquise, who still accompanied Louis everywhere, suddenly lost consciousness on one of his trips. Soon everyone realized that the end was near. And although only royalty had the right to die in Versailles, Louis ordered her to be moved to the palace apartments.
Madame de Pompadour. DROUAIS François-Hubert 1763-64.
On April 15, 1764, the royal chronicler recorded: "The Marquise de Pompadour, lady-in-waiting of the Queen, died about 7 o'clock in the evening in the King's private apartments, aged 43 years." As the funeral procession turned towards Paris, Louis, standing on the palace balcony in the pouring rain, said: “What disgusting weather you chose for your last walk, madame!” Behind this seemingly completely inappropriate joke was hidden true sadness.
The Marquise de Pompadour was buried next to her mother and daughter in the tomb of the Capuchin monastery. Now at the site of her burial there is Rue de la Paix, which runs through the territory of the monastery that was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century.
Paris Rue de la Paix.
She revealed a secret that all women in the world are puzzling over - how to keep a man near you for 20 years, if he is not even a husband, and you have not had an intimate relationship for a long time. Unfortunately, she took this secret with her to the grave.
