What do marquis diamonds, French coupe de Champagne, pompadour hair and sleigh rides have in common? The subject of the Les amusements de l’hiver, Madame de Pompadour.
Allow me to immerse you in this setting. Mid 18th century France. King Louis XV is reigning. His number one mistress is a lady named Madame de Pompadour. She has an affection for all things porcelain and has surrounded herself with ornate items in the Rocco style. Check out a few items from her collection displayed in the Louvre in Paris, France.
Madame de Pompadour’s coffee grinder
Duplessis mantel sconce in Louvre museum from her collection.
Her favored artist was Francois Boucher and she frequently commissioned paintings by him. Rumor has it she was the inspiration for the women riding in the sleigh in his Four Seasons works.
(The Four Seasons: Winter, painting by François Boucher)
Madame de Pompadour’s legacy lives on to this day in many ways you might not realize were even attributed to her.
Have you heard of a marquise cut diamond? According to legend the king commissioned it to be style in the form of the Madame’s mouth!
And the pompadour hairstyle like the one pictured below? It was named for her hair!
Maybe the most salacious of her legacies, the French champagne glass, the “coupe de champagne” was rumored to be modeled after the shape of her breast.
(James Abbott McNeill Whistler, The Wine Glass, 1858, etching on cream laid paper, Gift of Ada A. Chipman, public domain, 86.1.2)
In the 1750’s an engraver by the name of Jean Daulle, commissioned to engrave some of the most notable works of art. One set was the seasons by François Boucher. The print you see above is a rare reproduction from the early 1800’s and is hand colored. There were no other reprints after that. Isn’t it a phenomenal slice of French history??
