Anna de Noailles | |
|---|---|
 Anna, Comtesse de Noailles, 1922 | |
| Born | Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan (1876-11-15)15 November 1876 Paris, France |
| Died | 30 April 1933(1933-04-30) (aged 56) Paris, France |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet |
| Language | French |
| Notable awards | Commander of theLegion of Honour |
| Spouse | Mathieu Fernand Frédéric Pascal de Noailles |
| Children | 1 |
| Parents | Grégoire Bibesco-Bassaraba Ralouka Mussurus |
Anna, Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles (Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan;French pronunciation:[anad(ə)nɔaj]; 15 November 1876 – 30 April 1933) was a French writer of Romanian, Greek and Bulgarian descent, a poet and asocialist feminist.[1] She was the only female poet of her time in France to receive the highest public recognition, theGrand Prix of theAcadémie Française.[2]
BornPrincess Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan in Paris, she was a descendant of theBibescu andCraioveşti families of Romanianboyars. Her father was PrinceGrégoire Bibesco-Bassaraba, a son ofWallachian PrinceGheorghe Bibesco and Zoe Mavrocordato-Bassaraba de Brancovan. HerGreek mother was the former Ralouka (Rachel) Mussurus, a musician, to whom the Polish composerIgnacy Paderewski dedicated several of his compositions. Via her mother, Anna de Noailles was a great-great-granddaughter ofSophronius of Vratsa, one of the leading figures of theBulgarian National Revival, through his grandsonStefan Bogoridi,caimacam of Moldavia.[3]
She had friendly relations with the intellectual, literary and artistic elites of the day, includingMarcel Proust,Francis Jammes,Colette,André Gide,Frédéric Mistral,Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac,Rainer Maria Rilke,Paul Valéry,Jean Cocteau,Pierre Loti,Paul Hervieu, andMax Jacob. She was a cousin of PrinceAntoine Bibesco and PrincessMarthe Bibesco.
In 1897 she married Mathieu Fernand Frédéric Pascal de Noailles (1873–1942), the fourth son of the7th Duke de Noailles. The couple soon became the toast of Parisian high society. They had one child, a son, Count Anne-Jules de Noailles (1900–1979). She died in 1933 in Paris, at the age of 56, and was interred in thePère Lachaise Cemetery.
Starting with her first collection,Le Coeur innombrable (1901) Anna de Noailles wrote nine volumes of poetry; three novels, includingLe Visage émerveillé (1904); anovella ongender relations calledLes Innocentes, ou La Sagesse des femmes (1923); a collection of prose poems calledExactitudes (1930); and anautobiography titledLe Livre de ma vie (1932).
ANew York Times writer in 1929 wrote that she was "one of the finest poets of present-day France."[4]
Various visual artists of the day painted her portrait, includingAntonio de la Gándara,Ignacio Zuloaga,Kees van Dongen,Jacques Émile Blanche, and theBritish portrait painterPhilip de László.
In 1906 her image was sculpted byAuguste Rodin; the clay model can be seen today in theMusée Rodin in Paris, and the finished marble bust is on display in New York City'sMetropolitan Museum.
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Anna de Noailles was the first woman to become a Commander of theLegion of Honour, the first woman to be received in the Royal Belgian Academy of French Language and Literature, and she was honored with the "Grand Prix" of theAcadémie Française in 1921.[5]
Countess de Noailles served as a juror withFlorence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding thePrix Blumenthal, a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.[6]
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