PIERRE-NOËL VIOLET (FRENCH, 1749-1819)

Madame de Genlis was a French writer, harpist and educator. She learnt to play the harp as a child and her musical skills and her sharp wit attracted admiration in Paris. She entered the Palais Royal as a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Chartres and became the mistress of of the Duke who later put her in charge of the office of gouverneur of his sons, including the future King Louis-Philippe. During the Revolution she fled to Switzerland with Princess Louise Adélaïde d'Orléans but her husband, from whom she was by this time separated, faced the guillotine. She later moved to Berlin but was expelled by order of Frederick William II of Prussia. She then settled in Hamburg where she wrote and painted. After the Revolution she was permitted to return to Paris and was given apartments and a pension by Emperor Napoleon. During this period she wrote historical and romantic novels. She saw her old pupil, Louis-Philippe ascend to the French throne in 1830.