MADAME SOPHIE'S CHAMBERMAID - Lot 6

MADAME SOPHIE'S CHAMBERMAID "I, the undersigned Claire Legras wife of Sieur Routtier first chambermaid to Madame Sophie [One of Louis XV's four daughters] acknowledge having received from M. Gui Louis Pontoise de Vaujoie general receiver of the Versailles estates the sum of two hundred livres for my lodging for the first six months of this year 1768 at the rate of four hundred livres per year employed in the State of the King dedits estates of the said year. Dont quittance à Versailles du vingt-deux décembre 1768. [signed] Claire le Gras Routier " Coaster, carved gilded wood frame, Louis XV period. 29 x 34.5 cm. Biography: Sophie Philippe Élisabeth Justine de France (Versailles, July 27, 1734 - Versailles, March 3, 1782), better known as Madame Sophie, was the sixth daughter and the least well-known of her sisters. Her birth went virtually unnoticed after so many of the queen's childbirths, as did her childhood, which she spent at Fontevraud Abbey for twelve years (from 1738 to 1750), with her sisters Madame Victoire, Madame Thérèse and Madame Louise. She was baptized into the Catholic faith with Philippe I of Parma as godfather and her elder sister Louise-Élisabeth de France, Duchess of Parma, as godmother. A reserved, even effete character, she had no influence at court and allowed herself to be dominated by Madame Adélaïde. Reputed to be ugly and lacking in wit, Nattier's portraits of her in her youth show just the opposite. Louis XV nicknamed her "Graille". Like Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, she always followed her sisters in their quarrels with the royal favorites, and was always on their side when it came to politics. She found peaceful retreats at the châteaux of Bellevue and Louvois, which she obtained with her eldest daughters. Of the royal couple's ten children, she was one of only four to outlive their parents, and died on March 3, 1782, watched over only by her sisters Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire. Rather than undergo an autopsy, as was customary, she asked to have her foot cut open to verify her death. Like all members of the Royal House, Madame Sophie was buried at Saint-Denis Abbey, but her tomb was looted and destroyed during the French Revolution, which broke out 7 years after her death.