Tournehem (who also is believed to be her father), devoted their energies to making her worthy of a place at court.  She had a fine natural talent for music, drawing, and engraving—­some excellent examples of her work in the latter field still being preserved—­and she united with these a rare physical beauty.  M. Leroy, Keeper of the Park of Versailles, thus describes her at the time of her meeting with the King:  “She was taller than the average, graceful, supple, and elegant.  Her features comported well with her stature, a perfect oval face, framed by beautiful hair of a light shade, large eyes marked by eyebrows of the same hue, a perfect nose, a charming mouth, teeth of exceptional beauty displayed in a delicious smile, the rarest of complexions,” etc., etc.  He continues his superlative adjectives, indicating that the King was not the only susceptible person in the Park, finally adding:  “The features of the Marquise were lighted by the play of infinite variety, but never could one perceive any discordance.  All was harmony and grace.”  Truly, a worthy portrait of a famous beauty!

At the age of nineteen, Mlle. Poisson gave her hand to a kinsman of her guardian, M. Le Normant d’Etoiles.  The marriage seems to have been the result of a sincere passion on his part, but was looked upon merely as a matter of convenience by everybody else; for not long thereafter we find her luring the King with her “delicious smile,” while he was hunting in the forest of Senart; and in 1745 she was formally installed at Court, under the title of the Marquise de Pompadour.  This story, unadorned, may sound paltry, even commercial, but we should not fall into the error of judging it by twentieth century standards.  The morals of the French Court, never austere, were especially lax in the reign of Louis XV., and galanteries were the fashion, rather than the exception; while for the post of King’s favorite there was a continual rivalry among high-born dames.

Once in this coveted position, the Marquise devoted her energies to two things, and these she kept ever before her,—­the pleasing of her royal master, and the furthering of her party’s interests.  How well she succeeded, this book shows.  She entertained and amused the King by elaborate pageants, in the various chateaux which she built, or remodelled.  Bellevue, Choisy, the Hermitage at Versailles, Menars, La Celle, Montretout,—­these are among the monuments of her lavish career, and in these palaces she accumulated costly art objects, such as the Saxe porcelains, the Boulle marbles, and the sumptuous hangings and fittings which have later been known as “Pompadour.”  Herself an artist and connoisseur, she “set the pace” during a period of unbridled luxury.  She was patroness of the famous Sevres ware.  She drew around her such painters and litterateurs as Bouchardon, Carle Van Loo, Marmontel, Bernis, Crebillon, and Duclos.  To her Voltaire dedicated his Tancrede.