 It has in turn been suggested that du Barry was a direct model for Thackeray's Sharp, with both women being "careless beauties cursed with ambition beyond reason, who venture into activities beyond morals".Another possible model for Sharp from the same era suggested Andrew Lang, may be Jeanne de Valois, notorious for her involvement in the affair of the Diamond Necklace.Like de Valois, Sharp had a childhood of financial hardship, and Sharp's later boast of how she was related to the French noble family of de Montmorency could have been based on de Valois' own claims to have French royal blood in her veins.