Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière

Alexandre Jean Joseph Le Riche de La Pouplinière, sometimes also written Popelinière ou Poupelinière (Paris, 1693 – 5 December 1762) was an immensely wealthy fermier général, the only son of his father, Alexandre Le Riche (1663-1735), seigneur of Courgains, (Anjou) and Brétignolles (Touraine), likewise a fermier général. Besides his post as tax farmer, he was mainly one of the greatest patrons of music and musicians of the eighteenth century. A true patron of the Enlightenment, he gathered round him a circle of artists, men of letters and musicians. He kept a private orchestra, "the best that was known in those days", according to Jean-François Marmontel ("… le meilleur concert de musique qui fût connu dans ce temps-là."), which was led for twenty-two years by Jean-Philippe Rameau, who was succeeded by Johann Stamitz and then by François-Joseph Gossec. The best Italian musicians, violinists, singers, were lodged with him and fed at his table, and all, according to Marmontel, were inspired to shine competitively in his salon. Voltaire was obliged to his generosity, and Maurice Quentin de La Tour and Carle van Loo both painted his portrait. Marmontel recalled later, "Never did a bourgeois live in more princely style, and the princes came to enjoy his pleasures." ("Jamais bourgeois n'a mieux vécu en prince, et les princes venaient jouir de ses plaisirs.")