page_title: Madame de Pompadour
section_title: Friend of the King
hierarchical_section_title: Madame de Pompadour / Introduction to court / Friend of the King
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: L'Amitié sous les traits de Mme de Pompadour, par Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, musée du Louvre, RF3026.
context_page_description: Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise of Pompadour, commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and remained influential as court favourite until her death.
  Pompadour took charge of the king's schedule and was a valued aide and advisor, despite her frail health and many political enemies. She secured titles of nobility for herself and her relatives, and built a network of clients and supporters. She was particularly careful not to alienate the Queen, Marie Leszczyńska. On 8 February 1756, the Marquise de Pompadour was named as the thirteenth lady in waiting to the queen, a position considered the most prestigious at the court, which accorded her with honors.
  Pompadour was a major patron of architecture and decorative arts, especially porcelain. She was a patron of the philosophes of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire.
  Hostile critics at the time generally tarred her as a malevolent political influence, but historians are more favorable, emphasizing her successes as a patron of the arts and a champion of French pride.
context_section_description: Madame de Pompadour was able to wield such influence at court due to the invaluable role she played as a friend and confidant of the King.  In opposition to previous mistresses of Louis XV, Pompadour made herself invaluable to the King by becoming the only person whom Louis trusted and who could be counted on to tell him the truth. Pompadour was an indispensable comfort to Louis who was prone to melancholy and boredom. She alone was able to captivate and amuse him, and would entertain Louis with elegant parties, afternoons of hunting, and journeying among their various real estate holdings.
  Around 1750 Madame de Pompadour's role as friend of the King became her solitary role, as she ceased her sexual relationship with the King. The end of this sexual relationship was in part attributed to Pompadour's poor health, as she suffered the aftereffects of whooping cough, recurring colds and bronchitis, spitting blood, headaches, three miscarriages to the King, as well as an unconfirmed case of leucorrhoea. In addition Pompadour admitted to having “the misfortune to be of a very cold temperament” and attempts to increase her libido with a diet of truffles, celery and vanilla were unsuccessful. Furthermore, in 1750 the Jubilee year placed pressure upon the King to repent of his sins and renounce his mistress. In order to cement her continuing importance as favourite in the face of these impediments, Pompadour took on the role of "friend of the King" which she announced through artistic patronage. Pompadour's announcement was most prominently declared through her commission from Jean Baptiste Pigalle, of a sculpture representing herself as Amitié [friendship], offering herself to a now lost pendant sculpture of Louis XV. Pompadour also had a related sculpture depicted in a portrait of herself painted by François Boucher in 1759.
caption: Jean Baptiste Pigalle: Madame de Pompadour as "Friendship" (Louvre)
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