Madame de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour was the official chief mistress of French King Louis XV from 1745 until her death in 1764.
Born Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, she wielded considerable political and cultural influence at Versailles, becoming a major patron of the arts and architecture.
Her name evokes 18th-century French court elegance.
The Pompadour hairstyle—hair swept high off the forehead—derives from portraits of her.
- fanAdmirer or air mover
- royal mistressMonarch's extramarital companion
- French courtGallic royal government
- rococoExcessively elaborate in style
- porcelainTranslucent fired clay
Louis XV · portraiture · lace · Voltaire · monarchy · salons · jewel · philosophy · art patron · freethinking · absolutism · Seven Years War · silk · Versailles · censorship · powder · powder puff · court intrigue
- royal courtking, queen, prince, princess, crown
- 18th Century NoblesMarie Antoinette, Louis XVI, Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Marquis de Lafayette
- 18th Century WomenMarie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, Jane Austen, Abigail Adams, Martha Washington
- French FiguresNapoleon Bonaparte, Marie Antoinette, Joan of Arc, Louis XIV, Louis XVI
- Pre-Revolutionary FranceLouis XV, Louis XVI, Versailles, court life, royal mistresses
- Royal Mistresses
Madame de Pompadourpeasant woman
Female agricultural laborer
commoner · servant · scullery maid · nobody · outcast
Madame de Pompadourscorned woman