Baroness Hélène van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar or Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, née de Rothschild was a French author and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family. She collaborated on stories and poems with her lesbian partner Renée Vivien, sometimes under the pen name Paule Riversdale. An only child, the daughter of Salomon James de Rothschild, she was disinherited by her mother for marrying a Catholic, Baron Etienne van Zuylen of the old Dutch noble family Van Zuylen van Nievelt.
Nouvelle Revue internationale illustrée, December 1908
Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, the childhood home of Hélène de Rothschild.
Kasteel de Haar
Renée Vivien was a British poet who wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens. A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle Époque, she is notable for her work, which has received more attention following a recent revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Many of her poems are autobiographical, pertaining mostly to Baudelarian themes of extreme romanticism and frequent despair. Apart from poetry, she wrote several works of prose, including L'Etre Double, and an unfinished biography of Anne Boleyn, which was published posthumously. She has been the object of multiple biographies, most notably by Jean-Paul Goujon, André Germain, and Yves-Gerard Le Dantec.
Renée Vivien (left) and Natalie Clifford Barney posing for a portrait in Directoire-era costume
Otto Wegener circa 1900, portrait of Renée Vivien
Nicolas-Guy-Antoine Brenet [fr]; 1883 Alliance française medal awarded to Pauline Tarn, obverse
Reverse; inscription: ALLIANCE FRANCAISE MISS PAULINE TARN BELSIZE COLLEGE LONDON