Madame de Pompadour & The Mill of La Bellassière
Jeanne-Antoinette, or Madame de Pompadour was born in 1721 in Paris. Introduced young enough to the royal court, she was spotted by King Louis XV and became his lover in title, from 1745 to 1751. She was also the monarch’s adviser and remained his favourite until his passing.
Louis XV had her set up the Petit Trianon as his private residence and offered her the domain of Pompadour, which allowed his mistress to become a marquise and acquire a noble status. Her bourgeois origins easily attracted criticism from the upper aristocracy.
By the middle of 1746, Louis XV purchased his castle from Louis-Alexandre Verjus, Marquis of Crécy, for the sum of 750,000 pounds and offered it to Madame de Pompadour. She entrusted the architect Jean Cailleteau and the landscape designer Jean-Charles Garnier d’Isle to embellish her domain by redesigning the castle as well as the entire village. She commanded the painter François Boucher to paint overmantels illustrating arts and sciences and had the front of the Moulin de la Bellassière, with a true landscape vision. This was her preferred and beloved castle of all France until her last days on earth.
In 1749, again by her personal architect, she had a very charming residence built there, with a French garden, a fruit garden, a botanical garden and aviaries, which she called her Hermitage. Located on the Chemin de Versailles in Marly at 10 rue de l’Ermitage, under her name from 1835, this flowery estate contained a famous pink marble basin that belonged to Louis XIV.
From the 1750s, the marquise was no longer the king’s mistress but retained an ascendancy as a confidante and friend of the sovereign. In this sense, she encouraged the development of the Place Louis XV — now Place de la Concorde — or the creation of the Sèvres porcelain factory.
Madame de Pompadour particularly appreciated architecture and the decorative arts. In 1753, she acquired the palace of Evreux, now the Élysée Palace. The Marquise was also interested in writing and encouraged the publication of the first two volumes of the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d’Alembert.
Having a poor health, she died of a pulmonary congestion at the age of 42.
