Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Madame de Pompadour She was
born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson in 1721. It is suspected that her
biological father was the rich financier Le Normant de
Tournehem, who became her legal guardian when her official
father was forced to leave the country in 1725 after a scandal
and she lived with her mother and sister. She was intelligent
and educated; she also learned to dance, engrave and to play
guitar. She was married in 1741 (at the age of 19) to Charles-
Guilaume Le Normant d'Etiolles , nephew of her guardian.
Contemporary opinion considered her quite beautiful, with her
small mouth and oval face enlivened by her wit. Her young
husband was soon mad about her and she reigned in the
fashionable world of Paris. She caught the eye of the monarch in
1745. A group of courtiers, including her father-in-law,
endorsed her to Louis XV, who was still mourning the death of
his second mistress, the Duchess of Chateauroux . Jeanne-
Antoinette was invited to a royal masquerade ball in February 1