Grand Ladies

She was a noted educator and writer of educational books for children. Political turmoil kept her on the move. According to her Wikipedia article, “...In 1789, Madame de Genlis showed herself favourable to the French Revolution, but the fall of the Girondins in 1793 compelled her to take refuge in Switzerland along with her pupil Mademoiselle d'Orléans. In this year her husband, the marquis de Sillery, from whom she had been separated since 1782, was guillotined. An "adopted" (actually natural) daughter, Stephanie Caroline Anne Syms, called "Pamela", had been married to Lord Edward FitzGerald at Tournai on the preceding 27 December. (Another "adopted" (actually natural) daughter, Hermine Syms alias Compton, married Jacques Collard de Montjouy, and counted the convicted murderer Marie Lafarge among her grandchildren.) In 1794 Madame de Genlis fixed her residence at Berlin, but, having been expelled by the orders of Frederick William II of Prussia, she afterwards settled in Hamburg, where she supported herself for some years by writing and painting. After the revolution of 18th Brumaire (1799) she was permitted to return to France, and was received with favour by Napoleon, who gave her apartments at the arsenal, and afterwards assigned her a pension of 6,000 francs…"

1780 Portrait of Madame de Genlis by Adelaide Labille-Guiard (Los Angeles County Museum of Art - Los Angeles, California, USA)

Countess de Genlis de St. Aubin by Pierre Violet (Christie's)

Stephanie Felicite Ducrest, comtesse de Genlis

Mme de Genlis by Jean Valade (location unknown to gogm)