Mistress of Louis XV 1745-1751, influential at the French court and a patron of the arts; she had married the financier Charles Guillaume Le Normant d'Étoiles (8 May 1717-18 March 1799) in 1741.
François Boucher, Madame Pompadour, 1756 (Munich, BayerischeStaatsgemäldesammlungen)
- Mozart Relevance
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The Mozarts first mention Madame de Pompadour during their visit to Versailles in December 1763; Leopold describes her in a letter from Paris of 1 February 1764:
- I expect you’d like to know what Madame Marquise Pampadour [Pompadour] looks like, wouldn’t you? – – She must once have been very beautiful since she’s still attractive. She’s tall and stately in her appearance, fat or, rather, plump, but very well proportioned and blonde and looks a lot like the late Tresel Freysauf [Freysauff, a Salzburg friend], while her eyes have a certain similarity to those of Her Majesty the Empress [Maria Theresia]. She does herself great credit and is exceptionally intelligent. Her apartments at Versailles, which look out on the gardens, are a veritable paradise; in Paris she has a magnificent mansion that’s been entirely rebuilt in the Faubourg St Honoré. In the room that contains the clavecin |: which is all gilt and most elaborately lacquered and painted :| there’s a life-size portrait of her and next to it a portrait of the king.
- Date 1
- 1721-12-29 , Paris
- Date 2
- 1764-04-15, Paris
- Location
- Paris
- Location (Mozart)
- Paris