Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin
Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin (
1699 -
October 6,
1777) was a
French hostess who played an interesting part in French literary and artistic life.
She was born in
Paris. She married, on
July 19 1713, Pierre Francois Geoffrin, a rich manufacturer and lieutenant-colonel of the National Guard, who died in 1750. It was not till Mme Geoffrin was nearly fifty that she became known as a power in Parisian society. She had learned much from
Mme de Tencin, and about
1748 began to gather round her a literary and artistic circle. She held two dinners a week, on Monday for artists, and on Wednesday for her friends the
Encyclopaedists and other men of letters. She received many foreigners of distinction, including
David Hume and
Horace Walpole.
Walpole spent much time in her society before he was finally attached to
Mme du Deffand, and speaks of Mme Geoffrin in his letters as a model of common sense. She adopted the pose of an old woman earlier than necessary, and acted as mother and mentor to her guests, many of whom were indebted to her generosity for substantial help. Although her aim appears to have been to have the
Encyclopédie in conversation and action around her, she would reject those friends who incurred open disgrace.
Jean-François Marmontel lost her favour after the official censure of
Bélisaire. Her advanced views did not prevent her from observing the forms of religion.
A devoted Parisian, Mme Geoffrin rarely left the city. Her journey to
Poland in 1766 to visit the king,
Stanislas Poniatowski, whom she had known in his early days in Paris, was a remarkable event. Her experiences induced a sensible gratitude that she had been born
"Française" and
"particulière." In her last illness her daughter, Thérèse, marquise de la Ferté Imbault, excluded her mother's old friends so that she might die as a good Christian, a proceeding wittily described by the old lady: "My daughter is like
Godfrey de Bouillon, she wished to defend my tomb from the infidels."
See
Correspondence inédite du roi Stanislas Auguste Poniatowski et de Madame Geoffrin, edited by the comte de Mous (1875); P de Ségur,
Le Royaume de la rue Saint-Honoré, Madame Geoffrin et sa fille (1897); A Tornezy,
Un Bureau d'esprit au XVIII' siècle: le salon de Madame Geoffrin (1895); and Janet Aldis,
Madame Geoffrin, her Salon and her Times, 1750-1777 (1905).
