Many of her friends despised him, but whatever the nature of their relationship, whether it was sexual or not, she found it increasingly hard to resist his domineering demands for her attention and support.

Vaudreuil made his mistake in assuming that Queen Marie-Antoinette's close friendship with Gabrielle would automatically make her amenable to his ambitious demands.

In July 1783, Vaudreuil, a talented amateur actor, encouraged the Queen to allow the public performance of The Marriage of Figaro written by his friend, the noted liberal Pierre Beaumarchais.

By now, Gabrielle had apparently decided that Vaudreuil was beginning to weaken her own position as a leader of aristocratic society and her friendship with the Queen.

Following the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution, Vaudreuil, in the company of his old royal comrade, the Comte d'Artois, left Versailles on horseback for the Austrian Netherlands.

Gabrielle de Polastron left the country separately, settling in Switzerland, where she made no effort to contact Vaudreuil or inquire after his whereabouts.

Her behaviour in the last few years is crucially cited by those historians who reject the idea that she was ever actually sexually or romantically involved with Vaudreuil, but rather tolerated his larger-than-life personality and extravagances until he became too aggressive and too much of a threat to her own position at Versailles.

He was one of Vigée-Lebrun's most devoted patrons, and owned many of her works in his vast private art collection, which included a portrait of Gabrielle de Polignac.