Madame du Barry
| Jeanne Bécu | ||
 Portrait by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1782. | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born as: | Jeanne Bécu | |
| Born | Aug 19, 1743 Vaucouleurs, Early Modern France | |
| Died | Dec 8, 1793 - age 49 Paris, French First Republic | |
| Buried: | Madeleine Cemetery | |
| Spouse(s): | Comte Guillaume du Barry (1768 - ) | |
| Footnotes: | Though du Barry never wore rouge, another artist added it to her cheeks. | |
Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (✦19 August 1743 – †8 December 1793) was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason—particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the Revolution.
In 1768, when the king wished to make Jeanne maîtresse-en-titre, etiquette required her to be the wife of a high courtier, so she was hastily married on 1 September 1768 to Comte Guillaume du Barry. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by a false birth certificate created by Jean-Baptiste du Barry, the comte's older brother. The certificate made Jeanne appear younger by three years and obscured her poor background. Henceforth, she was recognized as the king's official paramour.
Her arrival at the French royal court scandalized some, as she had been a prostitute and of low birth. Many shunned her, including Marie Antoinette, whose contempt for Jeanne caused alarm and dissension in court. On New Year's Day 1772, Marie Antoinette deigned to speak to Jeanne: her remark, "There are many people at Versailles today", was enough to take the edge off the dispute, though many still disapproved of Jeanne.
Decades later, during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, Jeanne was imprisoned over accusations of treason by her page Zamor. She was executed by guillotine on 8 December 1793. Her body was buried in the Madeleine cemetery. The fabulous gems which she had smuggled to London were sold at auction in 1795.
Early years
Jeanne Bécu was the illegitimate daughter of Anne Bécu, a 30-year-old seamstress. Jeanne's father remains unidentified; however, it is possible that her father was Jean Jacques Gomard, a friar known as frère Ange.[5] One of her mother's acquaintances, and presumed brief lover, Monsieur Billiard-Dumonceaux, took 3-year-old Jeanne and her mother into his care when they traveled from Vaucouleurs to Paris. There, Anne worked as cook to Dumonceaux's current mistress Francesca, who pampered Jeanne. Her education began at Convent of Saint Aurea.[6]
When she came of age at fifteen, Jeanne left the convent. Around that time, she and her mother Anne were evicted from Monsieur Dumonceaux's household, and returned to Anne's husband Nicolas Rançon.
Needing an income, Jeanne first hawked trinkets for sale on the streets of Paris. She then found a job assisting a young hairdresser named Lametz, with whom she had a brief relationship, as well as a daughter according to some rumors.[7] She was soon employed as a companion (dame de compagnie) to an elderly widow, Madame de la Garde, but was sent away when she drew the attentions of Madame de la Garde's two married sons. Later, Jeanne worked as a milliners assistant and grisette in the haberdashery shop of Madame Labille and her husband. Labille's daughter, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, became a good friend of Jeanne.
As painted at the time, Jeanne was a beautiful blonde with thick ringlets and almond-shaped blue eyes. In 1763, when she was entertaining in the brothel-casino of Madame Quisnoy, her beauty attracted the notice of Jean-Baptiste du Barry.[8] His brother Comte Guillaume du Barry, also the owner of a casino, installed Jeanne in his household as his mistress, calling her Mademoiselle Lange. Guillaume helped establish Jeanne's career as a courtesan in the highest circles of Parisian society, including the aristocracy.
See also [ Madame du Barry (film) ]
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Madame_du_Barry ]
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