Cléopâtre-Diane de Merode, dite Cléo de Mérode, est une danseuse, modèle et icône de beauté française née le 27 septembre 1875 dans le 5e arrondissement de Paris et morte le 17 octobre 1966 dans le 8e arrondissement de la même ville.

Although a successful dance of her epoque, Cléo de Mérode was known by her extraordinary beauty. She was courted by countless men, many of them famous, including King Léopold II of the Belgians. 

Various artists of her time were also inspired by her beauty, and she had posed for the sculptor Alexandre Falguière, the painters Edgar Degas, Jean-Louis Forain, Giovanni Boldini, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, etc. ​

But hard as she tried defending herself, Cléo de Mérode's fame was tinted, worsened by the rumor that she was the lover of King Léopold II of the Belgians. And she would have to fight for her reputation for the rest of her life.

In 1949, the French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir mentioned Cléo de Mérode as a "Cocotte"(a woman of certain reputation) in her book Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex). Cléo de Mérode filed a lawsuit against the philosopher reclaiming millions of francs. She won the lawsuit the second year with a symbolic one franc.

But her reputation was not completed saved. Even as late as 2015, long after her death, Cléo de Mérode was included in an exposition of the prostitution of Belle Époque at musée d'Orsay.

In 1955, she published her autobiography, titled Le Ballet de ma vie(The Ballet of My Life), in which she revealed her real relations with King Léopold II of the Belgians.

Cléo de Mérode died on 17 October 1966 at her home in Paris, at the age of 91.

Malgré une rentrée réussie en 1924, elle décide de se retirer du monde de la danse à Paris. Sur la demande d'Henri Varna et Émile Audiffred, elle reparaît ponctuellement sur scène en juin 1934 dans La revue 1900 aux côtés du danseur George Skibine. « Je portais une robe de satin rose, baleinée à la taille, très longue, avec un ruché dans le bas. Nous dansions cinq valses à la file ; nous finissions par un grand tourbillon, et Skibine m'emportait dans ses bras au fond de la scène ».

Sa beauté délicate, hors des canons de beauté 1900, est restée légendaire, ainsi que les hommages qu'elle reçoit de quelques célèbres soupirants, plus particulièrement le roi Léopold II de Belgique, aventures qu'elle relate dans ses mémoires, Le Ballet de ma vie, publiées en 1955 par les Éditions Horay, à Paris. La rumeur infondée de leur liaison et, par conséquent de son influence sur la politique belge et congolaise, a cependant nui à sa réputation.

​Elle pose pour le sculpteur Alexandre Falguière, pour les peintres Edgar Degas, Jean-Louis Forain, Giovanni Boldini, elle est représentée par Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, par le verrier capitaine d’industries et artiste Georges Despret, et a son effigie en cire au musée Grévin dès 1895, façonnée par le chef d'atelier du musée, le sculpteur Léopold Bernstamm.

Elle est une des premières femmes dont l’image photographique, due notamment aux photographes Paul Nadar (1856-1939), fils et successeur de Félix Nadar, et surtout Léopold-Émile Reutlinger (1863-1937), est diffusée à l'échelle mondiale. Elle pose également pour l'atelier photographique Benque (photographies prises à l'Opéra de Paris, à partir de 1890), le photographe Charles-Pierre Ogerau (1868-1908), auteur d'une série de portraits en 1895, et plus tard, Henri Manuel (1874-1947).

Élue « reine de Beauté » sur photographies par les lecteurs de L'Illustration en 1896, parmi 131 célébrités, dont Sarah Bernhardt ; elle accroît sa notoriété la même année avec un parfum de scandale, du fait de l'exposition de la sculpture La Danseuse d’Alexandre Falguière au Salon des artistes français. 

​En 1950, Cléo de Mérode gagne un procès contre Simone de Beauvoir, qui en 1949 dans Le Deuxième Sexe l'assimilait à une « cocotte », ignorant par ailleurs qu'elle était encore en vie. Le juge considère que l'ancienne danseuse aurait dû publiquement démentir cette rumeur à l'époque mais indique que les propos de la philosophe sont inconvenants et la condamne à faire retirer cette mention de son livre et à un franc symbolique d'amende, alors que Cléo de Mérode réclamait millions. Dans Les femmes, actrices de l'Histoire, l'historienne Yannick Ripa écrit : « Réputée pour sa grande beauté, plus encore que pour ses talents de danseuse, Cléo de Mérode luttera toute sa vie contre sa réputation de demi-mondaine ». La même réputation lui est donnée lors d'une exposition sur la prostitution de la Belle Époque en 2015 au musée d'Orsay.

Pendant l’Occupation, elle se retire à Saint-Gaultier, dans l’Indre. Elle retourne ensuite vivre à Paris. Elle séjourne plusieurs étés de sa vie à Biarritz ou au château de Rastignac à La Bachellerie en Dordogne, chez la famille Lauwick.

En 1955, elle publie son autobiographie, intitulée Le Ballet de ma vie.

Elle meurt à l'âge de 91 ans le 17 octobre 1966, à son domicile parisien situé au 15, rue de Téhéran (8e arrondissement de Paris).

​Doña Fabiola Fernanda María-de-las-Victoria Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón (11 June 1928 – 5 December 2014) was Queen of the Belgians from her marriage to King Baudouin in 1960 until his death in 1993. The couple had no children, so the Crown passed to her husband's younger brother, King Albert II.

​Fabiola de Mora (Madrid; 11 de junio de 1928 - Bruselas; 5 de diciembre de 2014) fue una aristócrata española, hija de los Marqueses de Casa Riera que se convirtió en reina consorte de los belgas tras su matrimonio con el rey Balduino de Bélgica entre 1960 y 1993.

Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón was born in Madrid, Spain, at the Palacio de Zurbano, the main residence of the Marqués de Casa Riera. She was the daughter of Don Gonzalo de Mora y Fernández y Riera y del Olmo, 4th Marqués de Casa Riera, 2nd Count of Mora (1887–1957), and his wife, Doña Blanca de Aragón y Carrillo de Albornoz y Barroeta-Aldamar y Elío (1892–1981), daughter of the 6th Marchioness of Casa Torres and Viscountess of Baiguer. Her godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain. 

Fabiola worked as a nurse in a hospital in Madrid. Before her marriage, she published an album of 12 fairy tales (Los doce cuentos maravillosos), one of which ("The Indian Water Lilies") would get its own pavilion in the Efteling theme park in 1966.

On the occasion of her marriage, Spanish bakers set out to honour Fabiola and created a type of bread, "la fabiola", which is still made in Palencia.

According to official sources, Queen Fabiola was fluent in French, Dutch, English, German and Italian, in addition to her native Spanish.

The royal couple had no children, as the Queen's five pregnancies ended in miscarriage in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 and 1968. Fabiola openly spoke about her miscarriages in 2008: 'You know, I myself lost five children. You learn something from that experience. I had problems with all my pregnancies, but you know, in the end I think life is beautiful'. She and Baudouin I called the miscarriages a chance to be able to love all children. She was deeply involved with the upbringing of Prince Philippe and Princess Astrid.

Baudouin died in late July 1993 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Albert II. Fabiola moved out of the Royal Castle of Laeken to the more modest Stuyvenberg Castle and reduced her public appearances so as not to overshadow her sister-in-law, Queen Paola.

In September 1993, she became the president of the King Baudouin Foundation, established in 1976 to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of King Baudouin's reign. The foundation's purpose is to improving the living conditions of the population.

​During the 1990s, the Hospital Saint-Pierre in Brussels was important in matters around AIDS. Queen Fabiola visited them in 1993 and embraced a patient. She was one of the first public figures to do this.

Queen Fabiola also founded the Social Secretariat of the Queen with the purpose to answering many requests for help. She has supported study programmes aimed at prevention and treatment of dyslexia among children.

She established Queen Fabiola Fund for Mental Health. The foundation's purpose is to help people with mental problems. During her entire life, she devoted herself to causes such as young women prostitution, human slavery and people with disabilities. Queen Fabiola received several humanitarian awards in her lifetime and was awarded the Ceres Medal in 2001 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Queen Fabiola was hospitalised for 15 days with pneumonia beginning 16 January 2009, with her condition described as "serious". She subsequently recovered and began attending public functions the following May. Queen Fabiola had been in poor health for years, having osteoporosis, as well as having never fully recovered from a lung inflammation she had in 2009.

On the evening of 5 December 2014, the Royal Palace announced that Queen Fabiola had died at Stuyvenberg Castle.

The federal government declared a period of national mourning from Saturday 6 December to Friday 12 December, the day when the funeral of Queen Fabiola took place at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels.

The Royal Family, members of the government and the Lord Speaker received the coffin at the Royal Palace on 10 December where it was placed in the grand antechamber, where it was decorated with flowers and attended by an honour guard of generals, members of the King's Royal Military household. 

Members of several royal families around the world including the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Empress of Japan, Queen of Denmark, King and Queen of Sweden, King of Norway accompanied by his sister Princess Astrid, former King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein, former Empress Farah of Iran and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, attended the funeral. No members of the British Royal Family or the Monegasque Princely Family attended the funeral, leading to criticism by both Belgian and international press.

Fabiola nació el 11 de junio de 1928 en el Palacio de Zurbano (Madrid), la entonces residencia de los Marqueses de Casa Riera, actual sede del Ministerio de Fomento.

Fabiola fue la cuarta de los siete hijos de Gonzalo de Mora y Fernández Riera y del Olmo, IV marqués de Casa Riera y II conde de Mora (1887-1957) y de Blanca de Aragón y Carrillo de Albornoz, Barroeta-Aldamar y Elío, VIII marquesa de Casa Torres, XVIII vizcondesa de Baiguer, condesa de la Rosa de Abarca (entre otros títulos) (1892-1981).

Sus padrinos de bautismo fueron su tío Fernando de Aragón, VIII marqués de Casa Torres, y la reina de España, Victoria Eugenia.

En 1931 con la proclamación de la II República, la familia se exilió por razones políticas a decisión de su padre, amigo personal de Alfonso XIII. Residieron en Francia, Italia y Suiza hasta el fin de la Guerra Civil. A su regreso a España, los Mora recuperaron y restauraron su palacio de Madrid que durante la guerra había funcionado como cuartel de Dolores Ibarruri, conocida como La Pasionaria.

Fue educada en los colegios de las Religiosas de la Asunción en Roma, París y Lausana, y, en Madrid, en el Liceo Alemán. Cursó, luego, la carrera de enfermería técnica de la Sanidad Militar en la escuela de Carabanchel en Madrid entre 1957 y 1958, y realizó prácticas en San Sebastián y en el Hospital Militar Gómez Ulla.

Además del español, Fabiola hablaba con fluidez francés, neerlandés, inglés, alemán e italiano.

En 1955, había publicado anónimamente un álbum de doce cuentos de hadas (Doce cuentos maravillosos) que alcanzaría la popularidad con su traducción al neerlandés en 1961 al punto de que uno de ellos («Los nenúfares indios») conseguiría su propia atracción en el parque temático Efteling (Países Bajos) en 1966.

Contrajo matrimonio con el rey Balduino de Bélgica el 15 de diciembre de 1960 en la catedral de San Miguel y Santa Gúdula de Bruselas y ese mismo día iniciaron su luna de miel en España, concretamente en Hornachuelos (Córdoba).

La nueva reina consorte llevó un vestido creado por el diseñador español Cristóbal Balenciaga.

La Reina Fabiola Falleció por causas naturales en su residencia, el Castillo de Stuyvenberg en Laeken. Los reyes Felipe y Matilde y los reyes eméritos Paola y Alberto visitaron la capilla ardiente instalada en el Palacio Real de Bruselas.

A su despedida final asistieron los reyes eméritos Juan Carlos I y Sofía de España, la princesa Beatriz de los Países Bajos, los reyes Harald V de Noruega (con su hermana Astrid), Margarita II de Dinamarca y Carlos XVI Gustavo de Suecia (con su esposa Silvia), así como el príncipe soberano Juan Adán II de Liechtenstein y el gran duque Enrique de Luxemburgo (con su esposa María Teresa), entre otros soberanos del resto del mundo, en un sencillo pero alegre funeral. De Europa no estuvieron representadas ni la Familia Real Británica ni la Familia Principesca de Mónaco.

​Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA (8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street (now number 7). Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) generating considerable controversy, and he produced a picture that could serve as the embodiment of the historical and naturalist focus of the group, Ophelia, in 1851–52.

By the mid-1850s, Millais was moving away from the Pre-Raphaelite style to develop a new form of realism in his art. His later works were enormously successful, making Millais one of the wealthiest artists of his day, but some former admirers including William Morris saw this as a sell-out (Millais notoriously allowed one of his paintings to be used for a sentimental soap advertisement). While these and early 20th-century critics, reading art through the lens of Modernism, viewed much of his later production as wanting, this perspective has changed in recent decades, as his later works have come to be seen in the context of wider changes and advanced tendencies in the broader late nineteenth-century art world, and can now be seen as predictive of the art world of the present.

Millais's personal life has also played a significant role in his reputation. His wife Effie was formerly married to the critic John Ruskin, who had supported Millais's early work. The annulment of the Ruskin marriage and Effie's subsequent marriage to Millais have sometimes been linked to his change of style, but she became a powerful promoter of his work and they worked in concert to secure commissions and expand their social and intellectual circles.

Millais's Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) was highly controversial because of its realistic portrayal of a working class Holy Family labouring in a messy carpentry workshop. Later works were also controversial, though less so. Millais achieved popular success with A Huguenot (1851–52), which depicts a young couple about to be separated because of religious conflicts. He repeated this theme in many later works. All these early works were painted with great attention to detail, often concentrating on the beauty and complexity of the natural world.

In paintings such as Ophelia (1851–52) Millais created dense and elaborate pictorial surfaces based on the integration of naturalistic elements. This approach has been described as a kind of "pictorial eco-system." ​

Other paintings of the late 1850s and 1860s can be interpreted as anticipating aspects of the Aesthetic Movement. Many deploy broad blocks of harmoniously arranged colour and are symbolic rather than narratival. 

Later works, from the 1870s onwards demonstrate Millais's reverence for Old Masters such as Joshua Reynolds and Velázquez. Many of these paintings were of an historical theme. Notable among these are The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower (1878) depicting the Princes in the Tower, The Northwest Passage (1874) and the Boyhood of Raleigh (1871). Such paintings indicate Millais's interest in subjects connected to Britain's history and expanding empire.

In 1870 Millais returned to full landscape pictures, and over the next twenty years painted a number of scenes of Perthshire where he was annually found hunting and fishing from August until late into the autumn each year. Most of these landscapes are autumnal or early winter in season and show bleak, dank, water-fringed bog or moor, loch, and riverside. The first of these, Chill October (1870) (Collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber) was the first of the large-scale Scottish landscapes Millais painted periodically throughout his later career.

After the death of Lord Leighton in 1896, Millais was elected President of the Royal Academy.

His last project (1896) was to be a painting entitled "The Last Trek." Based on his illustration for his son's book, it depicted a hunter lying dead in the veldt, his body contemplated by two onlookers.

Millais died later in the same year from throat cancer. He was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. 

In 2007 the artist was the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain, London visited by 151,000 people. The exhibition then traveled to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, followed by venues in Fukuoka and Tokyo, Japan, and seen by over 660,000 visitors in total.