"Madame de Pompadour: Images of a Mistress"
2002-10-16 until 2002-01-12
National Gallery
London, , UK United Kingdom

Madame de Pompadour rose from modest beginnings to become Louis XV’s acknowledged mistress and one of the most powerful women of 18th-century France. Attractive, educated, highly intelligent and a lavish patron at a time when France dominated the European artistic scene, she employed the best of her country’s artists to depict her and to embellish her various residences. The exhibition will explore how Madame de Pompadour created an image of herself for social and political reasons against a background of increasing domestic and international tensions. It will include paintings, sculpture, porcelain, furniture, gems and prints.

Among the exhibits will be Boucher’s stunning portrait of Madame de Pompadour of 1756 from Munich, Carle Vanloo’s portrait of her in oriental dress from St Petersburg, Greuze’s 'Simplicity' from Fort Worth, and one of her writing-desks from Versailles complete with a secret compartment. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, the Musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon and the Kunsthalle, Munich.

Running concurrently is the Wallace Collection exhibition entitled ‘The Art of Love: Madame de Pompadour and the Wallace Collection’.

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