Madame du Barry
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Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason—particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the Revolution. She is also known as “Mademoiselle Vaubernier”.
Portrait of Jeanne Bécu, by François-Hubert Drouais in 1770: Museo del Prado
Madame du Barry, by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun; posthumous, between 1789 and 1805. Vigée Le Brun began working on the portrait in 1789, but had to abandon it when she underwent exile the same year, due to the French Revolution. Eventually, the portrait was given back to Vigée Le Brun, who completed it and gifted it to her niece.
The diamond necklace commissioned by King Louis XV for Madame du Barry
Madeleine cemetery
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Madeleine Cemetery is a former cemetery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and was one of the four cemeteries used to dispose of the corpses of guillotine victims during the French Revolution. The cemetery was named after Mary Magdalene, known in French as Sainte-Madeleine.
Plaque in the Catacombs of Paris indicating the placement of the bones transferred from the Madeleine Cemetery
Chapelle expiatoire roses blanches