Valentine de Saint-Point
French writer, poet, painter, playwright
Died when: 78 years 40 days (937 months)Star Sign: Aquarius
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Valentine de Saint-Point (née Anna Jeanne Valentine Marianne Glans de Cessiat-Vercell; 16 February 1875, Lyon – 28 March 1953, Cairo) was a French writer, poet, painter, playwright, art critic, choreographer, lecturer and journalist.
She is primarily known for being the first woman to have written a futurist manifesto, but was also active in Parisian salons, and the associated literary and artistic movements of the Belle Epoque.
Her writings and performances of La Métachorie, which demonstrated her theory of "a total fusion of the arts." Performed veiled, it is an exploration of the body’s relationship to nature and geometric archetypes that govern physical form and movement.
Finding a similar universality in Islamic art, she converted to Islam and moved to Alexandria where she also became involved in Middle Eastern politics, writing prolifically as an advocate for Egyptian and Syrian independence from French rule.
She died at the age of 78.Her Muslim name was Ruhiyya Nur al-Din and she is buried right next to the Imam al-Shafii.
