Muses • Women who changed the course of Art

...of Lewis Carroll


"I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"

Alma Mahler-Werfel, the famous 'femme fatale' and muse of many geniuses of his time.

Wife of the composer Gustav Mahler.

Married the architect Walter Gropius and poet Franz Werfel

Had passionate love affairs with the painter Oskar Kokoschka, Gustav Klimt, and many others, joining some of the most creative minds of the century.

Muse of painter Amedeo Modigliani



Jeanne Hébuterne became a principal subject for Modigliani's art. In the fall of 1918, the couple moved to the warmer climate of Nice on the French Riviera where Modigliani's agent hoped he might raise his profile by selling some of his works to the wealthy art connoisseurs who wintered there. While they were in Nice, their daughter was born on 29 November. The following spring, they returned to Paris and Jeanne became pregnant again. By this time, Modigliani was suffering from tuberculous meningitis and his health, made worse by complications brought on by substance abuse, was deteriorating badly.

On 24 January 1920 Amedeo Modigliani died. Jeanne Hébuterne's family brought her to their home but Jeanne, totally distraught, threw herself out of the fifth-floor apartment window the day after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child.

Muse of painter Gustav Klimt



Gustav Klimt's model, muse & mistress Adele Bloch-Bauer (yes, he had more than one!) photographed c.1900 and pictured in Klimt's 1901 painting, Judith with the head of Holofernes which is on display at the Galerie výtvarného umění (Gallery of Fine Art) Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Muse of painter Pablo Picasso

Muse of photograpger Man Ray

The fanaticism of Man Ray was so great that devastated after she abandoned him, he did at the time a self-portrait - a photo showing him next to a gun and a rope around his neck.

Muse of painter Egon Schiele

Muse of photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue

"She's beautiful, I see around her a halo of magic"

Muse of painter Egon Schiele

Only three days after the death of his wife Schiele died.

Muse of painter Pablo Picasso

Man Ray's muse


•

...and mainly muse of the poet Paul Eluard

Facile
Tu te lèves l'eau se déplie
Tu te couches l'eau s'épanouit


Tu es l'eau détournée de ses abîmes
Tu es la terre qui prend racine
Et sur laquelle tout s'établit


Tu fais des bulles de silence dans le désert des bruits
Tu chantes des hymnes nocturnes sur les cordes de l'arc-en-ciel,
Tu es partout tu abolis toutes les routes


Tu sacrifies le temps
À l'éternelle jeunesse de la flamme exacte
Qui voile la nature en la reproduisant


Femme tu mets au monde un corps toujours pareil
Le tien


Tu es la ressemblance.

Muse of painter Salvador Dali