Michel Celse Roger de Bussy Rabutin

Biography

The second son of Count Roger de Bussy-Rabutin, he served as Bishop of Lucon from 1723 until his death. He attended the salon of Madame de Tencin; he was elected to the Academie francaise on 21 February 1732, without having written a single work, being sponsored into the French Academy by Fontenelle the following 6 March. In 1735 he commissioned a portrait of himself by Hyacinthe Rigaud without knowing how he would pay for it – the artist's accounting books state "Monsieur the Bishop of Lucon, Bussy-Rabutin. Remains half-finished.".