Madame de Pompadour and the Women of Versailles

Excellent online lecture from the National Gallery on Madame de Pompadour and other mistresses of Louis XV.

Fiona Alderton, used “Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame” by Francois Hubert Drousaid (1733-4) from the gallery as the starting point to talk about the women of the court of Versailles.

The talk concentrated on Pompadour herself to mark the 300th anniversary of her birth a few days later looking at how  she sought to continue to entertain the king over their 19 year relationship and how she used various artists to construct her image.

Alderton also talked about the queen, Marie Leszczy?ska, and the mistresses who proceeded and succeeded Pompadour, Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle and Madame Du Barry.

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