Triumph at Theatre des Petits Cabinets

It was sometime in 1747, that Mme de Pompadour decided on the idea of opening a small private theatre at Versailles. The restless and easily bored Louis XV was always in need of something new to divert his mind, and a theatre with Madame de Pompadour as its leading lady was really a spontaneous creative idea to delight the king, and he was full of approvals about the whole project. The result was the the very tiny but elegant 'Theatre des Petits Cabinets', all dressed up in Boucher and Perot's art it could only hold an audience of fourteen. The theatre was situated in the gallery close to the Cabinet des Medailles in the King's own private apartments.

A scene from Tartuffe

The first play was planed for the 17th January it was Molaire's 'Tartuffe' a comedy, originally written in the early reign of Louis XIV, the play poked fun at some aspects of the so called mysteries of religion (when it was first staged in 1664, it was a huge hit but the scandalised, pious Queen mother, Anne of Austria backed-up with a few other officials insisted that the play should not be preformed in public). Now it was to mark the beginning of a very successful five years in which Madame de Pompadour participated in 61 different and a total of and 122 performances including ballet and operas.

The 'Tartuffe' the  Marquise was to play the part of Dorine an outspoken,  servant girl, which itself must have produced a host of delicious laughter, since it was Madame de Pompadour, who behind the drama of the theatre, stood, supervising it all,  ordering everything and everyone into place.  Those invited to this very first production consisted of the King, Mesdames d'Estrades (at the time Mme de Pompadour's closest friend), her brother Abel,  her uncle or possible father M. de Tournehem and a few friends of the kings including his trusted valet Champcenetz and Marechal de Saxe. The actors were handpicked Mme de Pompadour herself; she looked specifically for those who possessed some measurable talent in acting, singing, dancing or those who could play some instrument beautifully.
A list of rules and regulations was was drawn out by Mme de Pompadour, and just a glance at its contents shows visibly that the power behind the production was firmly in the hands of Mme de Pompadour and the other female actresses; here are some the outlined rules:

'Actresses with benefit of the right to choose the play and the company'

'They will have the right to decide the plays the number of rehearsals as well as the day and time of the performance.'

'Any actor who will not be on time for the rehearsal will pay a fine, but only the actresses will have the right to decide its amount.'

A depiction Madame de Pompadour in another of her plays Acis et Galatée; preformed on the Stairs of Ambassadors 25th January

She was of course, already talented as an actress, and this was not the first time she found herself on stage (she had a theatre built to entertain her guests when she was just humble Mme d'Etioles). She could act better then many of the professionals and was reputed to have had a wonderful singing voice, even her enemies sang praises when it came to her theatrical talents, after all theatrical acting had taken a large part of her early education; she was taught to sing by Pierre Jeliotte and speak alexandrines by the famous poet and dramatist   Prosper Jolyot de Crebillon as part of the positively glittering education she attained.

Because of its profound success there had to be a bigger theatre built for a larger audience so the theatre was moved to the more spacious Ambassadors Staircase, there she preformed outstandingly in many comedic roles; in Le Prince de Noisy she played Prince Charming and was most tastefully dressed in men's clothing, after the show the king charmed exclaimed 'you are the most delicious woman in France'. The many plays preformed in these theatricals gave loads of opportunity to dress up in the most amazing costumes, records of some of the costume items used in these productions list assortments of fanciful hats, fake beards for priests, black moustaches to imitate Turks, a scythe symbolising father time, fairy wands, wheel of fortune, countless wigs, gowns, petticoats and bodices for the ladies and breeches for the gents were just some of the items used.

Rouge: Placing roses upon your Cheeks

Madame de Pompadour applying Rouge

Rouge was in huge demand during this colourful, fun-loving period, a fashionable lady could not go without it, she would have rouge amongst her many other cosmetic pots, with a variety of shades to chose from; perhaps, if she was wealthy enough she could keep all her paints and lotions in dainty little coffers and immensely pretty porcelain boxes created by the fashionable Sevres company (patronised by Madame de Pompadour).

Pommade Pot

Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, before and after she became worldly famous Madame de Pompadour was also a slave to rouge, when on her deathbed in 1764 her last request, after receiving the last rights was to powder her face with rouge, clearly she wanted to depart as stylishly as she had lived. The whole Paris seemed to love a rosy, crimson or scarlet complexion to the approval and disapproval of many; the womanising charmer Casanova thought much of it, and said it gave a sort of 'amorous fury' to the complexion. Many magazines wrote in praise and mockery of rouge and face painting in general, one wrote mockingly that all woman insisted on wearing masks of white and red, noting that the white was Spanish and the red was Italian (reference to where most popular face paints came from; Spanish White contained bismuth with combination of chalk or starch and was very widely used). There was of course loads to chose from when buying rouge, Mlle Martin from Paris was known to have sold the most exclusive rouge and reputably the best, and indeed all the female royalty of Europe placed orders for it (she distributed hers readily packed in irresistibly pretty Sevres porcelain containers), Baronne de d'Oberkirch who visited her famous rouge store laughingly noted 'rarely does a duchess get a hold of one by mistake', clever Mlle Martin sold her product only to costumers of the the highest rank.
Pompadour's weakness for rouge was also used as juicy little sniped to be taken advantage off and included in all those horrible caricatures that continued to grow in numbers, as she continued to grow in power; one even depicted her as a all-rouged up monkey in gorgeous rococo surroundings which only highlights the grotesques of the monkey.

Two lovers both dolled up in rouge and of the same shade, on the
 cheeks and lips.

Many wrote of the dangers of face paint; rouge was part of the dangerous lead-based cosmetics which with frequent use could lead to loosing both your hair and teeth, begetting a rotten complexion, and in some very sad cases leading to death (Maria Gunning and the courtesan Kitty Fisher both died because they were just too fond of painting themselves).
What is particularly interesting is that during this century, people began to be really become aware of the dangers that of lead-based products posed to the skin, yet throughout the century rouge as immensely important and continued to be so until the French revolution discarded it for being to ancient regime. Yet before this men and woman alike indulged themselves in lead-based paints and powders always led of course by the refined taste set in Versailles where all sorts of rouged complexions could be viewed like Boucher's palette with all its wide ranging pastel pinks. Apparently by 1781 it was noted that two million pots of rouge were sold in France each year, everyone seemed to have adopted a nonchalant attitude towards it and clearly they were willing to risk the all to common and dreadful results in order to achieve or come as close as possible to the rococo ideal beauty and in terms of skin tone this meant a complexion where lilies and roses merge together, and since such a skin was hard to come by naturally rouge became a constant companion for woman and many men, despite its frequent, disastrous drawbacks.