Bedside table (table de nuit) ca. 1750-56 Attributed to Bernard II van Risenburgh From hence we went forward to Belle Vue, the finest Situation I have hitherto seen in Francethe House perfectly elegant;it was inhabited by Madame de Pompadour it seems, when in the plenitude of her Power. Hester Thrale, journal entry for October 26, 1775Situated between Meudon and Saint-Cloud, the Chteau de Bellevue, as its name suggests, offered beautiful prospects over the Seine River to the panorama of Paris in the distance. In 1750 Louis XV transferred the house, then just completed, to his official mistress, the marquise de Pompadour. Although modest in scale, the country residence was richly furnished by the king’s favorite, who was born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (1721-1764), a commoner who became a great patron of the arts. The mark of the Chteau de Bellevue (BV under a crown) and the number 59 on the frame of this night table identify it as a piece listed in an inventory drawn up in 1763, si