Laure HAYMAN (20th century) - Lot 312

Laure HAYMAN (20th century) Terracotta head of a young man signed on the reverse and dated 1923 (accidents) Height: 23.5 cm Laure Hayman (1851-1932) was a famous demi-mondaine of the Belle Epoque. An Englishwoman born in Chile, she was a descendant of Thomas Gainsborough's painter Francis Hayman. Her lovers included the Duc d'Orléans, Charles de La Rochefoucauld Duc d'Estrées, the King of Greece, Charles-Egon IV of Fürstenberg, Marcel Proust's maternal great-uncle Louis Weil, Prince Alexis Karageorgevitch, pretender to the Serbian throne, and Marcel's father Adrien Proust. She lived off the generosity of financier Raphaël Bischoffsheim, and was nicknamed the "denier of dukes". Laure Hayman is the main model for the character of Odette de Crécy in La Recherche, Swann's great love, and lives like her at 4, rue Lapérouse. She is also nicknamed "la dame en rose".