Deffand, Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, Marquise du (1697–1780)
Deffand, Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, Marquise du (1697–1780)
French patron of fashion and literature and salonnière. Name variations: Madame du Deffand; Marquise du Deffand; Marie de Vichy-Chamrond. Born Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond in 1697; died in 1780; dau. of the Comte de Chamrond; sister of Gaspard de Vichy; aunt of Julie de Lespinasse; m. the Marquis du Deffand, a distant cousin.
Cultivated and intense, engaged in voluminous correspondence with Horace Walpole, Duchesse de Choiseul, and Voltaire; when husband died (1750), regained her dowry and founded a salon; living in a suite attached to Convent of St. Joseph, received guests every day after 6, including the Maréchale de Luxembourg, Duchesse de Choiseul, d'Alembert, Montesquieu, Maupertuis, Beaumarchais, Lady Mary Hervey and George Selwyn; formed rivalry with Julie de Lespinasse; went blind.
See also Benedetta Craveri, Madame Du Deffand & Her World, trans. by Teresa Waugh (Godine, 1994); and Women in World History.