_WHITE.png)
16 Apr 2022
Annie
Wenstrup
Full Moon
Apr 30th
Madame de Pompadour
to François Boucher
Apr 1st
After François Boucher's
The Toilette of Venus (1751)
Although the salon will mock
me, my portrait
on the gallery wall,
although they’ll whisper
she’s not beautiful anymore,
her skin is sallow, she’s gaunt,
and although it’s true—
paint me as I was.
Beautiful.
Why wouldn’t you?
I’ve played a shepherdess,
a nymph, a king.
I’ve lost interest
in looking coyly
at the ground.
That’s why I stopped praying—
the humility. I won’t ask
for grace while shadows
cloak my face.
Behind the poem...
Madame de Pompadour was Louis the XV’s mistress, friend and political advisor. A patron of the arts, she frequently sat for François Boucher, who also used her as a model for his painting The Toilette of Venus. When this work was unveiled, Boucher was criticised for flattering de Pompadour with his depiction. I look at her portrait today and marvel at how this woman navigated patriarchal constraints and created a life where she exercised so much agency – including over her own public image. Then again, it’s easy to see how such constraints affected her: from the gossip she endured while alive, to how she’s depicted in contemporary biographies.
