Madeleine Deslandes
Quick Facts
Biography
Baronne Madeleine Annette Edmé Angélique Vivier-Deslandes (16 April 1866 – 2 March 1929) was a French writer associated with the English Pre-Raphaelites. She was the subject of a painting by Edward Burne-Jones.
Deslandes travelled to England in 1893 to meet Burne-Jones in preparation for an article that she was writing about him for Le Figaro. It was arranged that Burne-Jones would paint Deslandes' portrait, which he did in 1895-96.
Deslandes wrote under the pseudonym "Ossit". She wrote several novels, including A quoi bon? (1892), Ilse (1894) and Cyrène (1908).
According to Emily Wubben, Deslandes "pursued a glittering social life in Parisian literary and artistic circles. She was celebrated as a hostess of a cultured salon that attracted the presence of renowned artists, poets and composers." She once entered a lion's cage at a fair and recited poetry by Jean Richepin.