De Menil, Dominique

De Menil, Dominique (b. Schlumberger)

(1908– ) art collector, philanthropist; born in Paris, France. She studied at the University of Paris (B.A. 1927), then studied mathematics and physics. An heir to the Schlumberger fortune, she emigrated to America (1941) and began collecting art (1945), particularly contemporary African art, surrealist work, and antiquities. She and her husband, a wealthy Frenchman, established the De Menil Foundation in Houston (1954), and beginning in 1968, she served as director of the Institute of Arts, Rice University, Houston.