Élisabeth van Rysselberghe

Élisabeth van Rysselberghe (15 October 1890 – 29 July 1980) was a Belgian translator. She was the daughter of Belgian painter Théo van Rysselberghe.

Élisabeth van Rysselberghe
Painting of Élisabeth by Théo van Rysselberghe, 1916
Born	(1890-10-15)15 October 1890 Brussels, Belgium
Died	29 July 1980(1980-07-29) (aged 89) Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Occupation	Translator
Spouse	Pierre Herbart ​ ​ (m. 1931; div. 1968)​
Children	Catherine Gide
Parents	Théo van Rysselberghe Maria Monnom

Biography

Élisabeth van Rysselberghe was born on 15 October 1890 in Brussels, Belgium.^[1] She was the daughter of neo-impressionist painter Théo van Rysselberghe and his wife Maria Monnom.^[2] As a child, she became acquainted with André Gide, a close friend of her parents, and the two became good friends.^[3]

Élisabeth had an affair with Rupert Brooke when she was twenty years old, and by 1913 the two might have become lovers "in a complete sense".^[4] However, Brooke, who was involved also with other women,^[5] died during World War I.^[6]

After the war, in 1920, Marc Allégret, Gide's lover, fell in love with Élisabeth.^[6] The two had wanted a child, but the wish did not come true.^[6] In 1923, Élisabeth gave birth to a child, Catherine. The father was André Gide, who at the time was married, and recognised the child only after the death of his wife, adopting her in 1938.^[7] Élisabeth had wanted a child "at all costs",^[3] while Gide had passed her a note during a trip on the train with friends years before, where he explained that he could not bear to see her or himself childless.^[6][8] Eventually, Élisabeth married French journalist Pierre Herbart in 1931.^[9] After her marriage to Herbart, the friendship between the latter and Gide was upset.^[9] The two divorced in 1968.^[10]

She was an avid reader and an excellent translator.^[11] She translated Donald Windham and John Keats into French.^[12] She translated the Letters of John Keats with Charles Du Bos,^[13] including Quatre lettres inédites^[14] and Lettre à John Hamilton Reynolds.^[15] Van Rysselberghe is the French translator of Windham's The Dog Star (French: Canicule)^[16] and Emblems of Conduct (French: Emblèmes d'une vie).^[17] In 1953, her translation of Justin O'Brien's Les nourritures terrestres d'André Gide et les Bucoliques de Virgile was published.^[18]

She died on 29 July 1980 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France.^[1]

Works

Author

• Lettres à la Petite Dame. Un petit à la campagne (juin 1924 – décembre 1926). Edited by Catherine Gide (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2000).

Translator

• Keats, John. The Letters of John Keats, with Charles Du Bos.
• Keats, John. Quatre lettres inédites in La Revue hebdomadaire, with Charles Du Bos (Paris: Plon, 1921).
• Keats, John. Lettre à John Hamilton Reynolds in Les Écrits nouveaux, with Charles Du Bos (Paris: Émile-Paul Frères, 1921)
• O'Brien, Justin. Les nourritures d'André Gide et les Bucoliques de Virgile (Boulogne-Billancourt: Editions de la Revue Pretexte, 1953).
• Windham, Donald. The Dog Star (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1954).
• Windham, Donald. Emblems of Conduct (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1968).