• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Chief mistress

… au reste, après nous, le Déluge

26 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Enlightenment, France, French songs

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Artist, Chief mistress, Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, Patroness of the Arts, The Enlightenment

Marquise de Pompadour by François Boucher, 1756, Neue Pinakothek (Wiki2.org.)

After France lost the Battle of Rossbach (1757), during the Seven Years’ War, and would lose New France, Madame de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV, said: “au reste, après nous, le Déluge” (“Besides, after us, the Deluge”).

For France, it was the beginning of the Deluge. After the Seven Years’ War, it was on the brink of bankruptcy, which, as we have seen, led to the meeting of the Estates General. It opened on 5 May 1789, but the French Revolution began two months later, on 14 July 1789, the day the Bastille was stormed.

For the people of New France, it was also the Deluge. New France (see map) was very large, but it had few inhabitants, about 70,000. These were the descendants of 26,000 colonists, but its population would grow.

The current population of Quebec is 8,455,402, 81% of whom are French-speaking. Many immigrants to Quebec are French-speaking North Africans: Blacks and Whites. Several are Algerians and, a large number, Muslims. (See The Population of Quebec, World Population Review.com.)

Madame de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour was born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764) and she was the royal mistress from 1745 to 1751, or from the age of 24 to the age of 30. She had to retire from her role as chief mistress because of health problems. However, she remained Louis XV’s friend and mistress of his heart. She was very influential at court. On 8 February 1756, she was named lady-in-waiting to Marie Leszczyńska, Louis XVI‘s mother.

The marquise was a patroness of the arts and a student of François Boucher. He taught her how to make engravings. She also learned to engrave semi-precious stones, such as onyx. The images shown below are by François Boucher and Pompadour, after gemstone engraver Jacques Guay. (Wiki2.org.) In 1759, our marquise bought a porcelain factory, at Sèvres. (See Madame de Pompadour, Wiki2.org.)

Génie de la Musique by Boucher, Pompadour, Guay (Wiki2.org.)
Génie de la Musique by Boucher, Pompadour, Guay (Wiki2.org.)
L'Amour by Boucher, Pompadour, Guay 1755 (Wiki2.org)
L’Amour by Boucher, Pompadour, Guay 1755 (Wiki2.org)


Les Lumières

Not only was the Marquise a patroness of the arts, but she was also a friend of the physiocrates and philosophes of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, no less, as well as its encyclopédistes: Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d’Alembert …

When Madame de Pompadour died of tuberculosis at the age of 42, Voltaire wrote:

“I am very sad at the death of Madame de Pompadour. I was indebted to her and I mourn her out of gratitude. It seems absurd that while an ancient pen-pusher, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty-two.”
(See Madame de Pompadour, Wiki2.org.)

“… après nous, le Déluge.”

Love to everyone 💕

 Les Tendres Souhaits — Le Poème harmonique
Claire Lefilliâtre, soprano
Vincent Dumestre, lutenist and founder of the ensemble Le Poème harmonique

Head of a Woman from Behind by François Boucher (WikiArt.org)

© Micheline Walker
26 February 2019
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

45.404172 -71.892911

michelinewalker.com

  • Share on Tumblr
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • More
  • Telegram

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,544 other followers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • A Strange Experience …
  • The Bible of Saint Louis, Toledo
  • God the Architect
  • October 1837
  • Le Vent du Nord: Celtic Roots
  • C’est dans Paris …
  • The Ishtar Gate in Babylon
  • From Candlemas to Valentine’s Day
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • February, Février…

Archives

Categories

Calendar

February 2021
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
« Jan    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

A WordPress.com Website.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
    %d bloggers like this: