Geoffrin, Marie-Thérèse Rodet

▪ French patroness

born 1699, Paris, Fr.

died 1777, Paris

      French hostess whose salon in the Hôtel de Rambouillet was an international meeting place of artists and men of letters from 1749 to 1777.

      The daughter of a valet, she married a rich manufacturer, a member of the newly influential bourgeoisie, with whom she had no rapport. Although lacking formal education herself, Madame Geoffrin was sensitive, an excellent listener, and naturally intelligent; she inherited the salon of the more unconventional Madame de Tencin, gave it an added tone of respectability, and became a generous, motherly patron to her guests and protégés, offering them criticism and advice. She ruled her domain with tact and strictness; neither religion nor politics as a subject of conversation was permitted. On Mondays such artists as François Boucher, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, and Jean-Baptiste Greuze attended; on Wednesdays writers, including Horace Walpole, Pierre Marivaux, Bernard de Fontenelle, and Helvétius were present. Madame Geoffrin's salon was also a centre for the Encyclopédistes, whose vast project she subsidized.

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