Madame Du Barry - Early Life

Early Life

Jeanne Bécu was born at Vaucouleurs, in the Meuse department in Lorraine, France. She was the illegitimate daughter of Anne Bécu, a woman of enticing beauty, whose occupation was a seamstress. Her kitchen and bedroom were also mentioned to describe a means of measly income for mother and daughter. Jeanne's father was possibly Jean Baptiste Gormand de Vaubernier, a friar known as 'frère Ange.' During her childhood, one of her mother's acquaintances (possibly brief lover), Monsieur Billard-Dumonceaux, and possibly father of Jeanne's half- brother Claude (who died in infancy when only ten months old) took both Anne and three-year-old Jeanne into his care when they traveled from Vaucouleurs to Paris and installed Anne as a cook in his Italian mistress' household. Little Jeanette was well liked by Dumonceaux's mistress Francesca (known in French as Madame or La Frédérique), who pampered her in all luxury. In time Dumonceaux made the decision to fund Jeanette's education at the convent of Saint-Aure.

At the age of fifteen, Jeanne left the convent as she had 'come of age.' For some reason; either due to La Frédérique's jealousy of the former's beauty or because Dumonceaux's passion for Anne revived, both mother and daughter were thrown out. They then moved into the very small household of Anne's husband, Nicolas Rançon. Jeanne had to find some sort of income to help herself live, and thus traveled the dingy streets of Paris carrying a box full of trinkets for sale. Reference is also made how she may have resorted to prostitution when offered, but was not her main job. In time she experienced different careers; she was first offered a post as assistant to a young hairdresser named Lametz; Jeanne had a brief relationship with him that may have produced a daughter, although it is highly improbable. On the instigation of a Gomard (possibly the brother of her supposed father), Jeanne was then employed as a companion (dame de compagnie) to an elderly widow, Madame de la Garde, but was sent away when her youth and beauty began to meddle in the marital affairs of both la Garde's two somewhat middle-aged sons. Later, Jeanne was a milliner's assistant (known as a grisette) in a haberdashery shop named 'À la Toilette', owned by Madame Labille, and run by her husband. Labille's daughter was the future famed painter Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, and Jeanne became very good friends with her. As reflected in art from the time, Jeanne was a remarkably attractive blonde woman with thick golden ringlets and almond-shaped blue eyes. Her beauty came to the attention of Jean-Baptiste du Barry, a high-class pimp/procurer nicknamed le roué. Du Barry owned a casino, and Jeanne came to his attention in 1763 when she was entertaining in Madame Quisnoy's brothel-casino. She introduced herself as Jeanne Vaubernier. Du Barry installed her in his household and made her his mistress. Giving her the appellation of Mademoiselle Lange, Du Barry helped establish Jeanne's career as a courtesan in the highest circles of Parisian society; this enabled her to take several aristocratic men as brief lovers or clients.