Marie-Laure de Noailles

Marie-Laure de Noailles in 1949, photographed by Carl van Vechten

Marie-Laure Henriette Anne de Noailles, Vicomtesse de Noailles (French pronunciation: [maʁi lɔʁ no.aj vikɔ̃tɛs no.aj]; née Bischoffsheim; 31 October 1902 – 29 January 1970) was a French artist, regarded one of the 20th century's most daring and influential patrons of the arts, noted for her associations with Salvador Dalí, Balthus, Jean Cocteau, Ned Rorem, Man Ray, Luis Buñuel, Francis Poulenc, Wolfgang Paalen, Jean Hugo, Jean-Michel Frank and others as well as her tempestuous life and eccentric personality. She and her husband financed Ray's film Les Mystères du Château de Dé (1929), Poulenc's Aubade (1929), Buñuel and Dalí's film L'Âge d'Or (1930), and Cocteau's The Blood of a Poet (1930).