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Description
B&W colored by me in GIMP. I just read a novel on this lady, and while some of it is fiction, the historical facts are actually very accurate.

Jeanne Bécu, countess du Barry ( born 19 August 1743 – executed on 8 December 1793) was the last Maîtresse-en-titre, being the mistress of Louis XV of France. She was one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

At a young age she is placed at "The Daughters of St. Anne," a community where were received, for a modest compensation, girls of honest family "who found themselves in circumstances where they ran the risk of being lost." - In other words having the risk of becoming a prostitute or comparable. Jeanne remains there but for a short time, as her continual escapades end in causing her to be sent away. She is installed as lady copanion with Madame Lagarde at the Cour Neuve; but there Jeanne involves herself in a love affair with the two married sons. Obligated to withdraw, Jeanne enters Labille's a millinery establishment and takes the name of Madamoiselle de Lancon. She is considered beautiful and knows it; one day, she forms an intimacy with the Count du Barry, who becomes her lover, trains her to please ( high placed ) men with the purpose to make her the instrument of his fortune. His ultimate goal is giving her to the king Louis XV.

When time comes and Jeanne makes her entry in Versailles, the King is immediately very fond of her. Then, to save appearances and permit the young mistress to remain at court , she is married to Guillaume du Barry, own brother to Count Jean-Baptiste du Barry, and given the title of countess. Once, installed at Versailles the cheerful but perhaps not so bright Jeanne figures she already has many enemies including '' Les Mesdames '' ( King's daughters ) and soon Marie Antoinette as well. Jeanne desires, buys, or has herself given everything that is beautiful, everything that attains a fantastic price. But after the sudden death of Louis XV., she remains with a multitude of huge clamorous debts, which the new King will satisfy in part, and on whose account she herself later, to her great regret, will have to sell many of her precious objects.

The revolutionary storm bursts into France. As suspect, she is arrested, thrown into prison, tried, and at last condemned to death. On hearing the terrible sentence pronounced, Jeanne has a terror of death and she wishes to live, to live at any price. In the cell of the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette had been a prisoner, where Jeanne is shut up in her turn, she has the clerk come to her under pretext of dictating revelations to him. But no revelations could, or did actually save her. Her execution is recalled as one of the most haunting in history, because of her hysterical begging and crying. In delivering herself up to the scaffold, she almost gathers a mob by her cries; and when she is bound to the fatal plank, they hear her as she supplicates, "Monsieur executioner, one little instant more!"

Description
B&W colored by me in GIMP. I just read a novel on this lady, and while some of it is fiction, the historical facts are actually very accurate.

Jeanne Bécu, countess du Barry ( born 19 August 1743 – executed on 8 December 1793) was the last Maîtresse-en-titre, being the mistress of Louis XV of France. She was one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

At a young age she is placed at "The Daughters of St. Anne," a community where were received, for a modest compensation, girls of honest family "who found themselves in circumstances where they ran the risk of being lost." - In other words having the risk of becoming a prostitute or comparable. Jeanne remains there but for a short time, as her continual escapades end in causing her to be sent away. She is installed as lady copanion with Madame Lagarde at the Cour Neuve; but there Jeanne involves herself in a love affair with the two married sons. Obligated to withdraw, Jeanne enters Labille's a millinery establishment and takes the name of Madamoiselle de Lancon. She is considered beautiful and knows it; one day, she forms an intimacy with the Count du Barry, who becomes her lover, trains her to please ( high placed ) men with the purpose to make her the instrument of his fortune. His ultimate goal is giving her to the king Louis XV.

When time comes and Jeanne makes her entry in Versailles, the King is immediately very fond of her. Then, to save appearances and permit the young mistress to remain at court , she is married to Guillaume du Barry, own brother to Count Jean-Baptiste du Barry, and given the title of countess. Once, installed at Versailles the cheerful but perhaps not so bright Jeanne figures she already has many enemies including '' Les Mesdames '' ( King's daughters ) and soon Marie Antoinette as well. Jeanne desires, buys, or has herself given everything that is beautiful, everything that attains a fantastic price. But after the sudden death of Louis XV., she remains with a multitude of huge clamorous debts, which the new King will satisfy in part, and on whose account she herself later, to her great regret, will have to sell many of her precious objects.

The revolutionary storm bursts into France. As suspect, she is arrested, thrown into prison, tried, and at last condemned to death. On hearing the terrible sentence pronounced, Jeanne has a terror of death and she wishes to live, to live at any price. In the cell of the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette had been a prisoner, where Jeanne is shut up in her turn, she has the clerk come to her under pretext of dictating revelations to him. But no revelations could, or did actually save her. Her execution is recalled as one of the most haunting in history, because of her hysterical begging and crying. In delivering herself up to the scaffold, she almost gathers a mob by her cries; and when she is bound to the fatal plank, they hear her as she supplicates, "Monsieur executioner, one little instant more!"