Maria "São" Schlumberger (; 15 October 192915 August 2007), was a Portuguese-born American fashion and art patron and collector, and the second wife of

Pierre Schlumberger Pierre Schlumberger (1914February 18, 1986) was an American businessman. He was the chief executive of Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services company. Early life Pierre Schlumberger was born in 1914, the son of Marcel Schlumberge ...

Early life

She was born Maria da Concerção Diniz on 15 October 1929 in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

, Portugal. Her father was a landowner, who grew cork and olives, and her mother was a German heiress from Hamburg - they met at the University of Coimbra. Her parents were never legally married, and she was largely raised by her Portuguese grandmother. Her maternal grandmother was Erna Schröeder. From the age of ten, she attended a Lisbon boarding school run by nuns, and in 1951, earned a degree in philosophy and history from the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, t ...

Personal life

She studied psychology for three months at New York's

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, and then worked as a counsellor for juvenile delinquents in Lisbon, before switching to studying art at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, where she met Pedro Bessone Basto, a "boulevardier" from a wealthy family. They married in New York, and divorced in under a year. In 1961, the Lisbon-based

Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One o ...

awarded her a fellowship to research children's programs in New York museums, and once there was helped by Kay Lepercq, whose husband Paul Lepercq was an investment banker, and his clients included the Schlumberger family. After two months,

(1914-1986) proposed and they married in 1961. His first wife, Claire Schwob d'Héricourt, with whom he had five children, died from a stroke in 1959. Pierre and São had two children, Paul-Albert, in 1962, and Victoire, in 1968. They lived in

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

, Texas, until he was ousted as CEO in "a family coup" in 1965, and moved to New York City and then Paris.

Art patron and collector

In Paris, they lived in an 18th-century

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...

in the Rue Férou, next door to

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each ...

, restored by French architect Pierre Barbe, with interior design by Valerian Rybar in "a provocative mix of classic and modern styles". She regularly organised parties, ranging from formal black-tie balls to a "hot-pants party". Schlumberger particularly liked the work of

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

, and Roy Lichtenstein. Her portrait was painted by

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...

, but in 1987, she said, "I don't really like it. I was expecting a fantasy...but he did a classic". Dali also designed for her an elaborate pearl-and-emerald necklace which she often wore.

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

also painted her portrait. She was a patron to the fashion designer John Galliano, and lent him her empty 17th-century Paris

hotel particulier A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

(which she had left for a new Right Bank apartment), for his autumn 1994 show, designed with the help of

André Leon Talley André Leon Talley (October 16, 1948 – January 18, 2022) was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of '' Vogue'' magazine. He was the magazine's fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first Afr ...

, Amanda Harlech, and Steven Robinson.

Death

She died in Paris on 15 August 2007. Her funeral at Saint-Pierre-du-Gros-Caillou church in the 7th arrondissement was attended by six people, due to the city being "empty" in August: her daughter Victoire, Henri, Count of Paris, André Dunstetter, Nicholas Dadeshkeliani, the graphic artist Philippe Morillon, and Maria, her personal maid.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlumberger, Sao 1929 births 2007 deaths Schlumberger people American art collectors Women collectors University of Lisbon alumni People from Porto Portuguese art collectors