There are then in the career and power of Madame de Pompadour two distinct periods:  the first, the most brilliant and most greatly favoured, was that following the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748):  in this, she completely played her role of a youthful favourite, fond of peace, the arts, the pleasures of the mind, and advising and protecting all things happily.  There was a second period, greatly checkered, but more frequently disastrous and fatal; this was the whole period of the Seven Years’ War, the attempted assassination by Damiens, the defeat of Rosbach, and the insults of the victorious Frederick.  These were harsh years which prematurely aged this weak and graceful woman, who was drawn into a struggle beyond her strength....  However, my impression is that things might have been worse, and that, with the aid of M. de Choiseul, by means of the Family Compact she again covered her own mistakes and the humiliation of the French monarchy with a certain amount of prestige.

It seems that the nation itself felt this and felt more especially that after this brilliant favourite there would be a greater fall; for when she died at Versailles, April 15, 1764, the regret of the Parisian populace, which some years before would have stoned her, was universal....

The one who seemed to regret her the least was Louis XV.; it is related that seeing from a window the hearse on its way from Versailles to Paris, the weather being dreadful, he only said: 

“The Marquise will not have very fine weather for her journey.”

All the masters of the French school of her time painted a portrait of Madame de Pompadour:  we have one by Boucher, and another by Drouais which Grimm preferred to all others; but the most admirable of all is certainly La Tour’s pastel owned by the Louvre.  To this we go in order to see la marquise before we allow ourselves to judge of her, or to form the least idea of her personality.

She is represented as seated in an arm-chair, holding in one hand a book of music, and with her left arm resting on a marble table on which are placed a globe and several volumes.  The largest one of these books, which is next to the globe, is Volume IV. of the Encyclopedie; next to it in a row are the volumes of L’Esprit des Lois, La Henriade, and Pastor Fido, indicative of the tastes at once serious and sentimental of the queen of this spot.  Upon the table also and at the base of the globe is seen a blue book upside down, its cover is inscribed:  Pierres gravees; this is her work.  Underneath it and hanging down over the table is a print representing an engraver of precious stones at work with these words:  Pompadour sculpsit.  On the floor, by the foot of the table, is a portfolio marked with her arms and containing engravings and drawings; we have here a complete trophy.  In the background, between the feet of the consol-table, is seen a vase of Japanese porcelain:  why not