Musées de Langres – Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot – Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1722–1764) and a favourite of Louis XV, supported the publication of the first two volumes of the Encyclopédie and encouraged the publication of further volumes, despite a ruling to the contrary by the Conseil d’État on 7 February 1752. Commissioned in 1751, the original pastel by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour was exhibited at the Salon of 1755. On the table are copies of volume IV of the Encyclopédie (1754), Voltaire’s La Henriade (1728) and Montesquieu’s De l’Esprit des lois (1748). Guarini’s tragicomedy Il Pastor Fido, a globe, engravings, drawings and musical scores complete this portrait of the intellectual pursuits of the Marquise.