Louise Marie Madeleine Fontaine

Louise Marie Madeleine Fontaine by Jean-Marc Nattier (1733).

Louise-Marie-Madeleine Guillaume de Fontaine (after marriage known as Madame Dupin; 28 October 1706 – 20 November 1799), was a French salon-holder.

A woman of spirit and famous for her beauty, between 1733 and 1782 she hosted a famous literary salon in Paris and owned the Château de Chenonceau, who was known as a center of the most famous French philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment.

Life

Youth

Louise de Fontaine was born in Paris, in the parish of Saint-Roch, on 28 October 1706. Her baptism act was as follows:

Louise-Marie-Madeleine, daughter of Jean-Louis-Guillaume, ecuyer, Seigneur de Fontaine, councillor of the King, commissioner of the Navy and galleys de France and Marie Anne Armande Dancourt his wife born on the twenty-eight of October in the Sourdière street on this parish where was baptized, was the godfather the very high and very powerful Lord Louis d'Aumont de Roche baron duc d'Aumont, peer of France , first gentleman of the King's bedchamber and Governor of the town and castle of Bolougne and Bolougnese country, the godmother was Magdeleine Clerjaut, wife of Samuel Bernard, Knight of the King's Order.

Signatures: Louis d'Aumont duc d'Aumont - Madeleine Clergeau Bernard - Jean Louis Guillaume de Fontaine - Goy.

Actually, Louise was the oldest of three illegitimate daughters of banker Samuel Bernard and Marie-Anne-Armande Carton Dancourt, nicknamed Manon, a daughter of actor Florent Carton Dancourt. Marie Dancourt was already married since 4 November 1702 with Jean-Louis-Guillaume de Fontaine, commissioner and controller of the Navy and War departments in Flanders and Picardy.

Manon's husband recognized Louise as his own with complacency, as well the two other children born from the affair with Bernard: Marie-Louise (born 25 August 1710) and Françoise-Thérèse (born 12 March 1712), both also baptized in the parish of Saint-Roch. During her marriage, Manon gave birth two other children, this time sired by her husband: Jeanne-Marie-Thérèse (born in 1705) and Jules-Armand (born on 3 April 1709), both also baptized in Saint-Roch.

The illegitimate daughters of Samuel Bernard are mentioned by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions:

The three sisters must be called the Three Graces: Madame de la Touche, whose escape to England with the Duke of Kingston; Madame d'Arty, the mistress and even more, the friend, the unique and sincere love of the Prince of Conti, an adorable woman as much for her kindness, her charming character and the unalterable gaiety of her humor; and finally Madame Dupin, the most beautiful of the three and the only one who can't be criticized by her conduct.

Gaston de Villeneuve-Guibert describes the childhood of Louise:

Her parents, who owned a considerable fortune, made everything to develop the happy dispositions and natural qualities which she was endowed. The most seductive charm and figure, joined with a sharp mind, a high character, a precocious intelligence and great memory; she like much by her softness and by the grace and distinction of her person. Her mother put her in a convent, and soon she became in the idol of the community: students and mistresses were delighted her cheerfulness, her talents, her projections; the upper cited as a marvel that everyone spoiled and that we were delighted.

The carefree attitude to these first years of life helped the young Louise to faced the reality of the adult world, the place of women in society from the 18th century and the omnipotence of parental authority. The father decide the fate of his children. The role of the religious institution on the status of women is crucial. The convent education is to enforce obedience, submission, accept the authority of parents and the intended spouse.

Claude Dupin

Samuel Bernard decides to engaged his daughter Louise to Claude Dupin, a modest collector of Taille at Châteauroux. According to the columnist Barthélémy Mouffle d'Angerville in 1721 Claude Dupin helped the eldest daughter of the family, Jeanne-Marie-Thérèse de Fontaine, when she passed through Berry. She married with François II de Barbançois, Seigneur de Celon on 21 August 1720 and, returning from the baths of Bourbon-l'Archambault and in considerable pain, she received the hospitality of Claude Dupin. Once his guest was recovered, Dupin was persuaded to accompanied her to Paris, where he met Samuel Bernard, who impressed by his kindness, offered him the hand of Louise, aged only sixteen. In his forties, a widower and father of a six-years-old son (who became in the grandfather of the novelist George Sand), this move was unexpected and he readily agreed, because with this proposal came the appointment of Receiver General of finances in Metz and Alsace.

On 29 November 1722 was signed the marriage contract and the religious ceremony was celebrated on 1 December in the Church of Saint-Roch. Thanks to the support of his father-in-law, Claude Dupin became part of the Ferme générale on 1 October 1726, after he sold his office in Châteauroux. Samuel Bernard obtain this new post for his protégé, for a total of 500,000 livres. The banker abandoned a few years later the debt, and providing the couple of any acknowledgment of debt. On 24 December 1728 Dupin bought the post of Councillor-Secretary of the King, House and Crown of France and finances. This acquisition allows him to be accepted as part of the nobility in the first degree, with his offspring.

Louise gives birth to a son, Jacques-Armand on 3 March 1727 in Paris.

Thanks to the generosity of Samuel Bernard and his income of the Ferme générale, Claude Dupin could obtain a considerable fortune, mainly in lands. Monsieur and Madame Dupin occupy a privilege position and had a lavish lifestyle. On 12 April 1732 Claude Dupin, joinly with his mother-in-law Manon Dancourt, bought the prestigious Hôtel Lambert in the Île Saint-Louis for the sum of 140,000 livres. On 9 June 1733 he acquired the magnificent Château de Chenonceau from the Duke of Bourbon for 130,000 livres. Each year, the Dupins spent the autumn in the Touraine. Starting in April 1741, Louise, with her husband, son and stepson, remained in the Hôtel de Vins, located in the parisin Plâtrière street and from 1752 they also owns a house in Clichy-sur-Seine where they spend the summer months. On 24 April 1738 with the acquisition of the Marquisate of Blanc and the Castellany of Cors, located at the limits of Berry and Poitou, they completed their patrimony. The Marquisate of Blanc includes the Château-Naillac, the château de Roche, the Château de Rochefort, Château de Cors, Château de Forges, with his respectives properties, farms, ponds and lands, who produced a total of 555,000 livres, four times the prize of Chenonceau. But soon difficulties arosed with the Countess of Parabère, the former owner, who caused the sequestration of Blanc lands and only after a decree of the Parlement of Paris dated 2 September 1739, confirmed by a judgment of 11 December, confirmed Claude Dupin as the legitimate owner of this lands and could recovered.

Samuel Bernard died on 18 January 1739 and according to the succession of his estate, Claude Dupin was forced to abandoned the Hôtel Lambert the following 31 March.

On 16 April 1741 Monsieur and Madame Dupin officially take possession of the city of Blanc, according to the feudal tradition:

The official procession was formed. The new feudal lord, armed and helmeted with his entourage advanced. Near him stood the pretty Marchioness of 34 years, and their children. All the noble citizens of Blanc, officers of court and administrators followed them. The people of the city, placed on the passage, looked them. The Reverend Father received them with a high mass. After the service, they visited the local monastery. The Reverend Father then walked with the beautiful Marchioness and gently asked not accompany her husband to visit their home, because this was against the customes.

Madame Dupin said with all her grace: the most valuable use we can make of our rights is to make them acceptable to those upon whom we have these rights. Since it didn't suit her that she not enter into her house, she didn't get in.

Madame Dupin

Monsieur and Madame Dupin had a prominent place in the finance world and are well related with the aristocracy. Their prosperity facilitates this social climbing, alongside with the qualities of Madame Dupin who widely contributed with this integration. Voltaire nicknamed her the goddess of beauty and music; indeed Louise Dupin was famous for her charm and spirit. She participated in the writings of her husband, most notably in the volumes of Observations on the Spirit of Laws, but also worked in her own projects.

Beautiful, intelligent and cultivated, her seductive power attracts all the sympathies, including men of letters, philosophers and scholars. In this circle and the dinners that she hosted, Madame Dupin had animated conversations, leaded the debates and proposed discussions. In the Hôtel Lambert, Chenonceau or in the Hôtel de Vins, she holded a literary and scientific salon: among her guests are notably Voltaire, the Abbot of Saint-Pierre, Fontenelle, Marivaux, Montesquieu, Buffon, Marmontel, Mably, Condillac, Grimm, Bernis and Rousseau; in addition, she received a great members of the French nobility, like the Princess of Rohan, the Countess of Forcalquier, the Duchess of Lévis-Mirepoix, the Baroness Hervey and the Princess of Monaco. Madame du Deffand was also received, although perhaps she was the only one who speak unfavorably about Louise Dupin; this probably was because of a tipical case of jealousy: the authoritarian hostess of the salon in the Saint-Dominique street found difficult to accept that her guest attend other circles. During the Enlightenment, the salons are an integral part of social life of the elites, and play an essential role in the dissemination of ideas, social and political protest.

Through her mother, Louise Dupin comes from a family of artists, all went to the Comédie-Française. The sense of theater is somehow innate in her. She create a small theater at the southern end of the gallery on the first floor of Chenonceau and gives himself to her passion. She also practices philanthropy. A staunch feminist, Louise claims for women education and access to public jobs and careers until then reserved exclusively to men.