POMPADOUR, JEANNE-ANTOINETTE POISSON, MARQUISE DE

( (marchioness of), ) born Dec. 29, 1721, Paris died April 15, 1764, Versailles, Fr. byname Madame De Pompadour, also called (1741-45) Jeanne-antoinette Le Normant D'tioles influential mistress (from 1745) of the French king Louis XV and a notable patron of literature and the arts. Additional reading The best biography is E. and J. de Goncourt, Madame de Pompadour, new ed. (1888), in French; also good are P. de Nolhac, Portraits du XVIIIe sicle (1933), Madame de Pompadour et la politique, d'aprs des documents nouveaux (1928), and Louis XV et Madame de Pompadour (1902). In English, see Nancy Mitford, Madame de Pompadour (1964, rev. ed. 1968).