Marie-Laure de Noailles, Vicomtesse de Noailles (31 October 1902 – 29 January 1970) was 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).