Anna de Noailles

• Name — Anna de Noailles • Birth Name — Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan • Born — 15 November 1876 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Died — 30 April 1933 • Place of death — Paris, France • Resting Place — Père Lachaise Cemetery • Occupation — Novelist, poet • Language — French • Children — 1 • Parents — Grégoire Bibesco-Bassaraba Ralouka Mussurus • Relatives — Gheorghe Bibescu (grandfather) Konstantinos Mousouros (grandfather) Stephanos Mousouros (uncle) Léon de Montesquiou (cousin) Antoine Bibesco (cousin) George Valentin Bibescu (cousin) • Awards — Commander of the Legion of Honour

Born Princess Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan in Paris, she was a descendant of the Bibescu, Craioveşti and Mavrocordato families of Romanian boyars. Her father was Prince Grégoire Bibesco-Bassaraba, a son of Wallachian Prince Gheorghe Bibesco and Zoe Mavrocordato-Bassaraba de Brancovan. Her Greek mother was Ralouka (Rachel) Mussurus, daughter of Konstantinos Mousouros and a member of the Mousouros family. She was a musician and pianist, who studied with Camille O'Meara (Dubois), Frédéric Chopin's last student. The Polish composer Ignacy Paderewski had also dedicated several of his compositions to her. Noailles was extremely proud of her Greek ancestry. According to historian Catherine Perry, her Greek ancestry: Noailles was also a great-great-granddaughter of Sophronius of Vratsa, one of the leading figures of the Bulgarian National Revival, through his grandson Stefan Bogoridi, caimacam of Moldavia and Prince of Samos. She had friendly relations with the intellectual, literary and artistic elites of the day, including Marcel Proust, Francis Jammes, Colette, André Gide, Frédéric Mistral, Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Valéry, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Loti, Paul Hervieu, and Max Jacob. She was a cousin of Prince Antoine Bibesco and Princess Marthe Bibesco. • Illustration — Portrait by Philip de László, 1913 In 1897, she married Mathieu Fernand Frédéric Pascal de Noailles (1873–1942), the fourth son of the 7th 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 stood as patron to Alice Sollier in the Légion d'honneur, having been treated at both the doctor's Boulogne sanatorium and her Saint-Cloud clinic. She died in 1933 in Paris, at the age of 56, and was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

• Illustration — Anna de Noailles, portrait by Ignacio Zuloaga, 1913 Starting with her first collection, Le Coeur innombrable (1901) Anna de Noailles wrote nine volumes of poetry; three novels, including Le Visage émerveillé (1904); a novella on gender relations called Les Innocentes, ou La Sagesse des femmes (1923); a collection of prose poems called Exactitudes (1930); and an autobiography titled Le Livre de ma vie (1932). A New York Times writer in 1929 wrote that she was "one of the finest poets of present-day France."

Various visual artists of the day painted her portrait, including Antonio de la Gándara, Ignacio Zuloaga, Kees van Dongen, Jacques Émile Blanche, and the British portrait painter Philip de László. In 1906 her image was sculpted by Auguste Rodin; the clay model can be seen today in the Musée Rodin in Paris, and the finished marble bust is on display in New York City's Metropolitan Museum. • Illustration — La Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles, 1899 by Antonio de la Gándara • Illustration — Anna, Comtesse de Noailles, 1914 by Jean-Louis Forain • Illustration — Anna, Comtesse de Noailles, 1936 by James Vibert

Anna de Noailles was recorded at birth as Anna Elisabeth Bibesco Bassaraba de Brancovan. The authorities additionally record the headings Princess Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan, Comtesse de Noailles, Anna Elisabeth de Noailles, Anna Elisabeth Mathieu de Noailles and Anne-Elisabeth de Noailles. Her recorded languages were French, English, German and Romanian. She was the child of Grégoire Bibesco and Ralouka Bibesco-Bassaraba. She married Mathieu de Noailles. Other recorded relations include Hélène Bibesco, Antoine Bibesco and Emmanuel Bibesco.