14 Facts About Marie-Louise O'Murphy

Marie-Louise O'Murphy was variously called Mademoiselle de Morphy, La Belle Morphise, Louise Morfi and Marie-Louise Morphy de Boisfailly.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy was baptized the same day in the church of Saint Eloi:.

The family of Marie-Louise O'Murphy was of Irish origin, who settled in Normandy.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy's parents had well-known criminal histories: Daniel Morfi was involved in a case of espionage and blackmail, while Marguerite Iquy was accused of prostitution and theft.

The sisters of Marie-Louise O'Murphy are known for being involved in prostitution.

In contemporary and modern historiography it is believed Marie-Louise O'Murphy was the very young model who posed for the Jeune Fille allongee, of Francois Boucher, a painting famous for its undisguised eroticism, dating from 1752.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy did not specifically cite Boucher and seems rather, in the evening of his life, to have recorded this episode from gossip and pamphlets which circulated very freely in Europe at the end of the 18th century.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy resided there for two years, from 1753 to 1755.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy unwisely tried to unseat the longtime royal favorite, Madame de Pompadour.

The Duke of Luynes and the Marquis de Valfons recorded that the Prince of Soubise and the Marquis de Lugeac received the task to find a husband for Marie-Louise O'Murphy and arrange her marriage.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy's mother was represented by a lawyer of the Parlement called Noel Duval, and none of her sisters was present, perhaps to spare the "mighty Seigneur d'Ayat" a painful confrontation with his humble and scandalous in-laws.

From her second marriage, Marie-Louise O'Murphy gave birth to a daughter, Marguerite Victoire Le Normant de Flaghac, who, according to one theory, could be another illegitimate daughter of Louis XV.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy was then incarcerated as a "suspect", under the name of O'Murphy, at Sainte-Pelagie Prison and later at the English Benedictine convent in Paris, known as the Couvent des Anglaises.

Marie-Louise O'Murphy died in Paris on 11 December 1814 aged 77, at the home of her daughter, Marguerite Le Normant.