A vase, circa 1925

An audacious arbiter of style, Marie-Laure, Vicomtesse de Noailles (1902-1970), was one of the most influential patrons of cubism and surrealism, whose salons attracted a stream of the most significant artists of her generation, including Luis Buñuel, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray and Salvador Dali. Notable commissions included her extravagant cubist villa on the French Riviera, designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1923, which served as a backdrop for Man Ray's celebrated film, Les Mystères du Château du Dé (1929), and the remodelling of the interior of her Paris home by Jean-Michel Frank.