Saint-Point Valentine (de)

Valentine de Saint-Point, born Anna Jeanne Valentine Marianne Desglans de Cassiat-Vercell on 16 February 1875, was an independent and complex figure within the early twentieth-century European avant-garde.

A writer, poet, playwright, dancer, painter, sculptor, theorist of Futurist feminism, and, in her later years, a convert to Islam, she engaged in multi-disciplinary artistic production and theoretical writing. The daughter of a father who died when she was eight, she was raised by her mother. A distant relative of Alphonse de Lamartine, she adopted the name Saint-Point from the family estate.

Marriages and Personal Independence

In 1893, at the age of eighteen, she married a professor of literature fourteen years her senior. The marriage ended six years later upon his death. In 1900, she married Charles Dumont, a professor of philosophy in Paris. This marriage was dissolved by a fault divorce obtained by Saint-Point in 1904, after which she entered a relationship with Ricciotto Canudo, a poet, novelist, and early film theorist who coined the description of cinema as "the seventh art".

Canudo introduced her to Parisian artistic circles and encouraged her theoretical concept of "cerebrism": an approach asserting that art should engage the intellect and provoke thought rather than merely evoke emotion. From this period, Saint-Point devoted herself extensively to artistic creation across various media.

Literary Debut and Early Works

Her poetic debut occurred in 1905 with Poèmes de la Mer et du Soleil. The following year she published the trilogy Un Amour, Un Inceste, Une Mort, works addressing themes of sensuality, mortality, and desire. She subsequently published an essay on Auguste Rodin, for whom she served as a model. In 1908, she published Poèmes d’Orgueil, a collection praised by Guillaume Apollinaire. Saint-Point also authored works for the theatre, including Le Déchu, performed at the Théâtre des Arts, and formulated plans for a "Theatre of Woman" intended to present female subjectivity beyond conventional tropes.

Futurism and Theoretical Manifestos

In 1912, in response to F. T. Marinetti's Manifesto of Futurism—which included a clause expressing "contempt for woman"—Saint-Point published the Manifesto of Futurist Woman. She was one of the few women to issue manifestos within the movement during this period. In it, she posited that humanity is composed not of strictly demarcated male and female categories, but of varying degrees of masculinity and femininity inherent in every individual. She asserted that women should reclaim elemental instincts, including lust, reinterpreted as a creative force.

Her second manifesto, the Manifesto of Lust (1913), attracted further public attention. Saint-Point addressed the text to women who shared her views without publicly expressing them. Lust, separated from moralistic constraints, was presented as a vital energy and source of renewal. The publication provoked substantial debate, eliciting accusations of immorality alongside defenses from contemporary critics such as Italo Tavolato.

Marinetti subsequently invited her to join the executive direction of the Futurist movement to represent "female action." Saint-Point accepted, while maintaining an autonomous stance often critical of the movement's chauvinistic elements.

Dance and Metachory

In 1913, Saint-Point announced her debut as a dancer, introducing Metachory (Métachorie), a term she coined to designate a form of dance expressing abstract concepts independently of traditional balletic forms. She performed with her face veiled to draw focus exclusively to the geometry of movement. Combining elements of dance, poetry, music, and geometry, her performances received varied critical responses; Marinetti characterized them as excessively intellectual. She performed at the Théâtre Léon Poirier and other European venues, and in 1917 participated in a tour in the United States, performing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

The War, Egypt, and Conversion

At the outbreak of the First World War, Saint-Point served briefly as a Red Cross nurse before relinquishing the position. She traveled to Spain and the United States before relocating to Egypt, where she converted to Islam, adopting the name Raouhiya Nour el-Dine. In Cairo, she associated with Egyptian nationalists and opposed British and French colonial interests. During the 1930s, she pursued interests in esoteric traditions, corresponding with René Guénon. She spent her final years in Cairo studying acupuncture and radiesthesia under modest financial conditions, dying on 28 March 1953. She was interred in accordance with Islamic rites.

Historiographical Assessment

Valentine de Saint-Point maintained an unconventional intellectual trajectory throughout her career, consistently rejecting social and artistic orthodoxy. Her contributions across literature, performance theory, and early feminist ideology remain significant subjects of study within the history of the twentieth-century avant-garde.