Picturing Marie Leszczinska (1703–1768): Representing Queenship in Eighteenth-Century France by Jennifer G. Germann (review)

Maria Leszczyńska—to use the Polish form of her name—was the consort of Louis XV, king of France (1710–74). Dynastic rules required that the king's spouse should be of equivalent rank, which meant that she had to come from a foreign territory. This latter condition Maria Leszczyńska (1703–68) certainly fulfilled, being the daughter of the Polish magnate, Stanisław Leszczyński, and his wife, Katarzyna Opalińska. She could, however, only barely qualify as a royal princess. Her father had ruled Poland briefly from 1704 to 1709 as a puppet of Charles XII, king of Sweden, after Charles had deposed the elected king, August II (Friedrich August I, elector of Saxony). When August II (the "Strong") died in 1733, Stanisław made another attempt to be elected king, only to be compelled to give way this time to August III (Friedrich August II, elector of Saxony), the son of his old rival.

Maria Leszczyńska and her family spent the period from 1709 to 1714 in exile in Sweden and from 1714 to 1719 as rulers of the territory of Zweibrücken under the protection of the Swedish king, Charles XII. They had to relinquish this territory on Charles's death and settled in Wissembourg in Alsace, from where Maria, to her father's surprise, was plucked to become the queen of France. Dynastic Europe considered the marriage a regrettable mésalliance. Maria was chosen for four reasons: the fifteen-year-old French king needed to produce an heir as quickly as possible and Maria, at the age of twenty-two, was physically mature and healthy; her lack of political connections meant that she was not aligned with any one power bloc; she was a Catholic; she was well-educated, modest, and virtuous. The powerful figures at court who proposed her as a bride wanted a malleable young woman who would let them guide her: "elle a l'esprit souple, qui prendra la forme et la figure qu'on voudra," said the chevalier de Méré of his future queen ("she has a malleable character which will take whatever shape one likes." Quoted from John Rogister, "Queen Marie Leszczyńska and Faction at the French Court, 1725–1768," Queenship in Europe, 1660–1815, ed. Clarissa Campbell Orr (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 186–218, 187).

The marriage took place in 1725 and Maria arrived in a court riven with factional politics, well described by John Rogister. After an early disastrous attempt to meddle in politics, Maria fulfilled her duties admirably during her forty-two-year marriage. She gave birth to ten children, of whom seven survived to adulthood. Although her son the dauphin predeceased her, three of her grandchildren became kings of France. Putting her body at the disposal of her marital dynasty was only the most prominent of a consort's duties. Others were the visible practice of piety and charity, the ability to draw to herself the love and respect of her subjects, and the discharge of her public role through her magnificent dress, mastery of court ceremonial, and emotional control. The latter required particular strength of character, since she was compelled to accept her husband's many mistresses into her own household. The most influential of them was Madame de Pompadour (née Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, 1721–64), whose almost twenty-year relationship with the king evolved from sexual playmate to friend, confidante, and political adviser.

As Jennifer G. Germann argues in this well-illustrated book, the queen's image in her portraits was a central element in the projection of the monarchy. Germann begins with the depictions of the Medici queens and of Anne of Austria, pointing out that there was a forty-year gap between the death of Louis XIV's consort, Marie-Thérèse of Spain, and the arrival of Maria as queen of France...