Marie Thérèse Rodet G was born in Paris in 1699. Her father was a valet-de-chambre
and her mother was the daughter of a middle class banker. Marie was orphaned at age seven and raised by her grandmother, Madame
Chemineau, who valued self-education. She prepared Marie-Thérèse religiously, morally, and socially for society; she
cultivated independent thought and reason in her granddaughter who educated her to the little extent that girls of her era
were educated.
On 19 July 1713, fourteen-year-old Marie Thérèse married fifty-year-old Peter Francis Geoffrin,
a wealthy manufacturer, and the prestigious director and a shareholder in the royal glass-works, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain.
Geoffrin gave birth to two children, a son who died at the age of ten, and a daughter, Mme de la Ferté-Imbault. Who later
wrote of her parents' marriage , her competition with Geoffrin, and the ultimate blessing of growing up among "great minds."
Geoffrin attended her neighbor, Madame Tencin's, salons. Tencin was a celebrated salonnière
who attracted many of the leading intellectuals of the day, who included Helvétius and Montesquieu. Tencin was a mentor to
Geoffrin, even though Geoffrin's letters emphasize her gratitude to Chemineau, her grandmother, for encouraging her. Geoffrin's
husband did not share the same drive as Geoffrin's, but his financial support did contributed to her initial success in 1748.
Marie Thérèse's friend Tencin died in 1749, followed by her husband in 1750. Geoffrin then
joined the board and management of the Saint-Gobain glassworks and welcomed the former habitués of her mentor, to her own
salons.
There was a diversity of intellects drawn to Madame Geoffrin's salons. She established a
serious purpose for the gatherings, and her guests noted her skill in drawing worldly and erudite minds to her salons, a challenge
to her brilliant rival, Madame du Deffand. She was described with integrity, distaste for conflict, and incomparable brilliance
in navigating thorny subjects. On Mondays, artists and sculptors including Carle Van Loo, François Boucher, and Étienne Maurice
Falconet went to the salons. On Wednesdays men of letters, including Denis Diderot, the art critic and editor of the Encyclopedia,
and the editor Friedrich Melchior von Grimm were frequently in attendance. Marie Thérèse maintained a strict focus. She counted
Catherine the Great, tsarina of Russia (who ruled 1762–1796), and Stanis Poniatowski, the last king of Poland (ruled
1764–1795), among her friends, and her letters to both rulers demonstrate the personal and political information they
shared.
She was such a devoted Parisian, and rarely left the city, but In 1766 she went to Poland.
Her journey to Poland was to visit the king, Stanislas Poniatowski, whom she had known in his early days in Paris, was a remarkable
event.
By 1777, her daughter, Mme Ferté-Imbault, had insulated Geoffrin, who was suffering from
erysipelas, a skin disorder. But shortly before her death, they repaired the ancient enmity that had divided them.
Marie Therese Rodet Geoffrin died in Paris on October 6, 1777.
Today Marie Therese Rodet Geoffrin is known as a French Enlightenment salonnière, hosting
intellectual conversations for important philosophes. She revealed a sophisticated Parisian woman who inspired intellectual
risks and helped to govern the French Enlightenment.
