Born in the small town of Saint-Sauveur in Burgundy, Gabrielle-Sidonie Colette, known simply as Colette (1873-1954), wrote provocative, personal, and experimental novels on the state of European women in modernity. Appreciated for its sensual and visceral qualities and its controversial themes of bisexuality and incestuous desire, along with a prose as inventive as Proust's, her work made a deep mark on modern art.