Madame du Barry, a known beauty

Portrait of Madame du Barry
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Portrait of the Comtesse Du Barry. [1771] ? oil on canvas.
A contemporary description of Madame du Barry...


"All the portraits and documents agree in giving Du Barry the rarest fascinations of woman, the enchantments of an unrivaled grace. Her hair was fine, long and silky, and of that blond cendré which, without the aid of powder, gives a sweetness and delicious harmony to the face, which was both bright and pensive.

As a charming contrast, she had brown eyebrows, and long curved brown eyelashes which set off the tender gleam of her blue eyes-eyes which only the pencil of a Greuze could depict.

Both types of beauty were untied in her face in a delightful manner, for the tender passion of the blonde was mingled with the ardent smile of the brunette."¹

¹Goncourt, Edmond de, Jules de Goncourt, and Robert Kopp. 2003. Les maîtresses de Louis XV et autres portraits de femmes: la duchesse de Châteauroux et ses soeurs, madame de Pompadour, la du Barry, Sophie Arnould, histoire de Marie-Antoinette. Paris: Laffont. 

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