Organized in collaboration with a panel of experts comprising specialists on her work and the period, the exhibition is based on a fresh critical approach dedicated to the epistolary work of this renowned figure. It brings together over two hundred pieces: paintings, objects, and drawings, both from Carnavalet’s collections and large French public and private collections alike.

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal was born in Paris, at the Place Royale (current-day Place des Vosges) on 5 February 1626. She came from an old Burgundian noble family on her father’s side and was raised in Paris by her maternal grandparents, the Coulanges, who provided her with an excellent education, a rare privilege for a young girl at the time. In 1644, she married Henri de Sévigné, a Breton nobleman, with whom she had two children: Françoise Marguerite and Charles. When her husband was killed in a duel in 1651, she was left a widow at the young age of twenty-five.

Dividing her time between the Marais district in Paris and her estate at Les Rochers in Brittany, Madame de Sévigné participated in some of the most refined literary circles of the capital, including those hosted by the Marquise de Rambouillet and Mademoiselle de Scudéry. She played a role in the development of galant culture which flourished at the time into a veritable art de vivre, with an influence on literature and the arts. The majority of Madame de Sévigné’s surviving correspondence consists of letters sent to her daughter who moved to Provence when she married the Comte de Grignan in 1669. Today, this published correspondence is considered both a classic of French literature and an essential work for understanding the history of ideas, customs, and events of the period.

Held at the Hôtel Carnavalet, where the famous Parisian lived from 1677 until her death in 1696, this exhibition explores Madame de Sévigné’s life in Paris at a time when the capital was undergoing significant change. 

The exhibition has been created with the exceptional participation of the Bibiliothèque nationale de France and the Musée du Louvre.