Jeanne de Salzmann

Jeanne de Salzmann was born in 1889 in Reims, France and raised in Geneva, Switzerland. She married Alexandre de Salzmann, a well-known Russian painter, in 1912 and returned to his home in Tiflis in the Caucasus mountain region of southern Russia. She met Gurdjieff in 1919 in Tiflis, became committed to his work, and remained close to him until his death in Paris thirty years later.

Before he died Gurdjieff charged Mme. de Salzmann to live to be "over 100" in order to establish his teaching. He left her all his rights with respect to his writings and dance exercises called the "Movements."

During the next forty years she arranged for publication of his books and preservation of the Movements, and established Gurdjieff centers to practice the teaching in Paris, New York, and London, as well as Caracas, Venezuela.

Mme. de Salzmann died at the age of 101 in Paris in 1990.

Mme de Salzmann in New York 1988