The illegitimate daughter of a financier exiled for fraud, Madame de Pompadour was groomed from childhood to become a plaything for the king. She more than fulfilled her destiny by becoming his acknowledged mistress and one of the most powerful women of 18th-century France.

Attractive, educated, and highly intelligent, Pompadour spent several fortunes on collecting art and gems.

This is the last portrait ever painted of her. She was no longer the young beauty that Louis had originally fallen in love with, but she was still his friend, confidante and, more dangerously, his political advisor.

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