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Necker (Mme)

Name: Suzanne  Necker

Nickname/Alias: born: Suzanne Curchod

Achievements: Famous salon hostess.  Wife of Jacques Necker,  French finance minister under Louis XVI

Born: May, 1737; Crassier, Switzerland

Died: May 6, 1794; Coppet, near Lausanne,  Switzerland (Aged 55)

Field & Discipline: Society;  Salon Hostess

Language: French

Father: Louis-Antoine Curchod

Mother; Unknown

Siblings: None

Spouse: Jacques Necker

Children: Anne Louise Germaine Necker (later, Madame de Stael)

Education: At home

Major Work:

Established “L'hospice de Necker” (became “L'hopital des Paroisses”) in Paris

Life & Times:

By age 20 , Necker had become a strikingly beautiful and extremely ambitious young woman, who made frequent trips to nearby Lausanne to keep company with an intellectual group of young people, who acknowledged her as leader.  In 1757, she became engaged to English historian [engaged to] Gibbon*, but his father disapproved and broke off the match a year later.

Upon her father's death in 1760, Necker and her mother moved to Geneva, where Necker took work giving private lessons to children. Despite her poverty, Necker’s beauty and education won her passage into the best houses in Geneva and she was much sought after as a governess.

Necker was much in demand in society and formed friendships far above her station, notably with the Duchesse d'Enville.  Such friendships made her increasingly dissatisfied with her lot as governess.  In 1764, a young widow, Madame de Vermenoux, came to Geneva, and impressed with Necker, de Vermenoux invited her to return to Paris with her as a tutor for her eight-year-old son and as a companion for herself.

Now 27, Necker felt it time to seek a good marriage.  In Paris only a matter of weeks, she met wealthy banker [married] Jacques Necker* and they were married a few months later.  Necker soon became pregnant, but was so disgusted by her changes in her body and her subsequent childbirth, she would bear one child only, Anne Louise Germaine, who would become the famous author, [daughter was] de Stael*.   Nevertheless, Necker dedicated herself to the girl, undertaking her education.

In 1767, when Necker was 30, her husband was appointed minister of the Republic of Geneva to the Court of Versailles, a modest post, but a decisive step toward becoming a statesman.  The Necker’s moved from a somewhat unfashionable house to a sumptuous “hotel” on the Rue de Clery.

It was here that Necker began her famous Friday “salon,”  a social event that brought together all the notables that a Parisian lady of fashion would entertain.  For three years, she worked to make her salon the supreme salon of Paris.  Among others she entertained  encyclopedist [entertained] Diderot*, American politican [entertained] Gouverneur Morris*, and naturalist [entertained] Buffon*.

In 1770, she started a correspondence with French writer [corresponded with]Voltaire*, which began after Necker arranged to have a statue raised to Voltaire. Pigalle.  Pleased with the tribute, Voltaire addressed verses to her, christened her Hypatia, and

corresponded with her for his remaining eight years.

But the fundamental purpose of the parties was political, with important and influential people wined and dined, bribed and occasionally lent large sums of money by the hugely wealthy Necker’s.  Necker looked after her husband's financial affairs and was also his publicist.  She was able to persuade many influential people that her husband was a

financial magician.

Necker also helped found a newspaper, the “Journal de Paris”, whose main function was to sing her husband’s praises.   In 1769, Jacques Necker was appointed to the directorship of the French India Company, a position that enabled him to establish a reputation as a

financial administrator and that gave him vast scope to exercise patronage.

In 1772, on Necker’s suggestion, her husband ceased to be a banker (passing his banking responsibilities to his brother, Louis) and became an economist, author and philanthropist.  In 1775, he wrote an article attacking the current free-trade policy in corn.  In 1776, Louis XVI appointed him Director of the Royal Treasury, and in 1777, Director General of Finances.  With the appointment came a palatial residence.

As part of her charitable work, Necker established a hospital, in  1776, which she called the  “L'Hospice de Necker” (it  later became “L'hopital des Paroisses”).  In one famous incident, she refused to employ the soon-to-be-renowned physician [incident with] Corvisart* as surgeon because he would not wear the traditional medical wig.

As minister, Necker’s husband had a number of successes in social and administrative reform, but made one serious mistake: in trying to finance French participation in the American War of Independence without increasing taxes, he published in 1781 his celebrated “Compte rendu” (Accounts) which claimed a surplus of 10 million livres, when in fact there was deficit of 46 million.

The opposition, under [knew] Maurepas*, and the hostility of Queen Marie-Antoinette forced Necker to resign in May, 1781.  The Necker’s retired to Saint-Ouen, where, in 1784, Jacques Necker wrote his  “De l'administration des finances de le France”, an apologia for his policy.

The Necker’s stayed in Saint-Ouen for seven years, until Jacques Necker was recalled to Paris by the King in 1788, when France was near bankruptcy.  His final political downfall came with the Revolution.  In 1790 he and his family retired to his estate at Coppet, on Lake Geneva.

Suzanne Necker wrote several books, including “On Precipitate Inhumations”, which reflected her longtime fear of being buried alive. She had been obsessed by death since she was a child, and  left detailed instructions for her embalmment in various fluids and the construction of a mausoleum.

On her death in 1794, she was placed under glass at Coppet, awaiting her husband, who joined her similarly preserved in 1804. The tomb then was walled up.

Extra Connections: She was a friend of [a pal of] CJ Fox*

Assessment: Mistress of a dazzlingly elegant Parisian salon.

Oneliner: Madame Necker, saloniste and mother of Madame de Stael

Bibliography:

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