GEOFFRIN, MARIE-THRSE RODET

born 1699, Paris, Fr. died 1777, Paris French hostess whose salon in the Htel de Rambouillet was an international meeting place of artists and men of letters from 1749 to 1777. The daughter of a valet, she married a rich manufacturer, a member of the newly influential bourgeoisie, with whom she had no rapport. Although lacking formal education herself, Madame Geoffrin was sensitive, an excellent listener, and naturally intelligent; she inherited the salon of the more unconventional Madame de Tencin, gave it an added tone of respectability, and became a generous, motherly patron to her guests and protgs, offering them criticism and advice. She ruled her domain with tact and strictness; neither religion nor politics as a subject of conversation was permitted. On Mondays such artists as Franois Boucher, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, and Jean-Baptiste Greuze attended; on Wednesdays writers, including Horace Walpole, Pierre Marivaux, Bernard de Fontenelle, and Helvtius were present. Madame Geoffrin's salon was also a centre for the Encyclopdistes, whose vast project she subsidized.