I am Robert de Montesquiou, I was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, painter, art collector, art interpreter, and dandy. I am reputed to have been the inspiration both for Jean des Esseintes in Joris-Karl Huysmans' À rebours (1884) and, most famously, for the Baron de Charlus in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–1927). In his play, Chantecler, Edmond Rostand is said to have caricatured me as the Peacock, 'Prince of the unexpected adjective.'" Some believe that I may have been an inspiration for the character Lord Henry in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.