Duchess Elaine Marie de Greffulhe

Countess Élaine Greffulhe, who became the Duchess of Gramont by marriage, was the daughter of Count Greffulhe and his wife, Élisabeth de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay (said to be a model for the Duchess of Guermantes in Marcel Proust’s novel, À la recherche du temps perdu). In 1904, she married Armand de Gramont, who later became the 12th Duke of Gramont.

A rare film clip may show Proust (in bowler hat and gray coat) at her wedding in 1904. Proust’s wedding gift to the groom was apparently a revolver in a leather case inscribed with verses from her childhood poems.