Louise Dupin

On 8 March it seems appropriate to pay tribute to one of the Ladies of the Château of Chenonceau: Madame Louise Dupin.

Portrait painted by Nattier, in the Salon Louis XIV at Chenonceau.

Louise and Claude Dupin bought the castle in 1733 and she often stayed there in the autumn with her extended family and associates, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Madame Dupin and her husband held salons in Paris, attracting the greatest minds of the Enlightenment (Diderot, Voltaire, Montesquieux...).

She defended the rights of women both orally and in writing, and belonged to a minority feminist movement of the time, since she defended strict equality between the sexes, whereas the majority of feminists defended the thesis of the superiority of women over men. 

It is notably thanks to her skill that Chenonceau was preserved during the French Revolution.
Her last wish was to be buried in the park of Francueil, on the south bank of the Cher, in line with the castle. As she so aptly put it: "It seems to me that I will rest pleasantly here".