SSI55065 Portrait of a Young Woman, 1485 (tempera on panel) by Sandro Botticelli/ Stadelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt
Botticelli's La Bella Simonetta
The ultimate muse, this young beauty charmed Florentine society. Although she died tragically young at age 22, her allure has been eternalized in the works of Botticelli, who preferred her face above all others. So goddesslike was she, the artist is even said to have modeled his Venus on her. In a final act of romance Botticelli also requested he be buried at her feet, forever to worship her.
PNH356907 Ophelia (w/c on paper) by Sir John Millais/ Peter Nahum at The Leicester Galleries, London
MAA55747 Flaming June, c. 1895 (oil on canvas) by Frederic Leighton/ Museo de Arte de Ponce/ The Maas Gallery, London
Pre-Raphaelite Beauties Elizabeth Siddal and Dorothy Dene
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s beloved, Elizabeth Siddal, also modeled for other artists: famously and fittingly as Millais’ tragic floating Ophelia. Her timeless beauty and flowing locks summed up the romanticist look, but sadly hid an inner turmoil. She was an unstable character, and driven to an addiction to Laudanum, took a fatal overdose and died in 1862.
The statuesque beauty, Dorothy Dene, was Victorian painter Frederic Lord Leighton’s favorite muse. Her career as an actress was a perfect complement to Leighton’s classical imaginings. She appears several times in his works languidly draped in flowing fabrics. The relationship was advantageous to both, as Leighton introduced her to many society contacts, no doubt furthering her career on the London stage.
NGV114849 (detail) Weeping Woman, 1937 (oil on canvas) by Pablo Picasso/ National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne/ DACS
Dora Maar
The notoriously unfaithful artist has become known for his excess of masculinity…leading to infidelities of the heart, in the bedroom and on canvas: Picasso had a string of muses throughout his career, each synonymous with his successive love affairs. He was in a relationship with photographer Dora Maar from 1936- 1944, and painted her over a dozen times. Perhaps a result of his cheating ways, one of the most famous portraits of Dora is of the anguished, distorted ‘Weeping Woman’.
PWI183664 The Cathedral by Auguste Rodin / Musee Rodin, Paris, France/ Peter Willi
Camille Claudel & Auguste Rodin
Camille Claudel shared a tempestuous relationship with sculptor August Rodin. An artist in her own right, she worked in bronze and stone, sharing a studio for a time with Rodin, where they would both work manically. Each sculpted the other, but disagreements eventually drove them apart. Claudel’s mental state deteriorated, her artistic output dried up and she lived out the rest of her years in an insane asylum.
XIR47740 (detail) L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux) 1888 (oil on canvas) by Vincent van Gogh/ Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Madame Ginoux
As a contrast, Van Gogh chose an outwardly stable, sturdy country woman for his muse. Madame Ginoux, the landlady of the Café in Arles that Gogh and Gauguin frequented during their stay, was captured in paint and titled ‘L’Arlesienne’. Evoking a timeless and ancient Provencal beautiful woman of the earth, Ginoux in real life suffered from mental breakdown and depression. Unsuccessful in his lifetime, a portrait in this series has since sold at auction in 2006 for a staggering $40,336,000.
BAL10491 Lytton Strachey, 1916 (oil on canvas) by Dora Carrington/ Private Collection
Lytton Strachey
Deep reciprocal bonds were often shared between artistic friends and lovers, and women artists were similarly inspired by the men in their lives. A deep and lasting relationship existed between Bloomsbury intellectuals Dora Carrington and Lytton Strachey. Although he was homosexual Carrington continually adored him, and they lived in close quarters together for 17 years – even when Dora married, they honeymooned a trois! When Strachey died in 1932, Carrington could not go on without him, and shot herself 6 weeks later.
JKL66258 Girl in a White Dress, 1947 (pastel on paper) by Lucian Freud/ Collection of Mrs. Pamela Wynn
Kitty Garman
Born of artistic heritage, Kitty Garman is the daughter of sculptor Jacob Epstein, and the first wife of painter Lucian Freud. An inspiration for an early series of portraits, Kitty set Freud on his depiction of the female muse. The stark atmosphere and fragility of his young wife is unsettling, but nowhere near the rawness and brutal brushstrokes of Freud’s later, explicit views of women, including modern super-muse Kate Moss.
XIR234484 (detail) Portrait of Gala, 1935 (oil on panel) by Salvador Dali/ Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA / DACS
Gala Dali
The wife of not one but two surrealists, Gala’s personality and presence made her an enduring feature in the life of both Paul Eluard, her first husband, and Salvador Dali, her second. If Dali’s dreamlike vistas are a vision of the inner psyche…..then it shows there was only one woman on his mind. Gala features in many of his works, often as a nude figure or just a floating head in amongst his surreal desert landscapes.