What 14 muses from the canvases of great artists really looked like

Pablo Picasso painted portraits of his wife, Russian ballerina Olga Jojlova, for 17 years. At the beginning of their love story, the artist portrayed her realistically, but when the marriage came to an end, Picasso more often began to resort to surrealism, so that it was not always easy to immediately know that the painted portrait represented the same woman. . As in the case of Picasso, the models of great artists were their lovers, muses and wives. What did these women really look like, what did they do and what was their fate?

O incredible.club compared the photographs of women who posed for famous artists with their appearance in the portraits of painters. In some cases, the contrast is so strong that it’s almost impossible not to be impressed. At the end of this post, a bonus: you will know how the sculptor Auguste Rodin saw his model and beloved.

Adele Bloch-Bauer was born into a respectable bourgeois family, her father was the general manager of the Vienna Banking Union. At age 18, she married an art connoisseur and sugar producer named Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who was significantly older than she was. Adele posed for four iconic paintings by Gustav Klimt. The most famous of these was the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” (right image). This work is also called “Woman in Gold” and “Mona Lisa of Austria”.

An interesting story also accompanies this portrait: Adele’s husband was convinced that there was an affair between his wife and Klimt. In order for the artist’s love for his muse to cool faster, Bloch-Bauer ordered a portrait of his wife, hoping that being close to Klimt, he would quickly get tired of her. The artist worked on his work for 4 years, creating about 100 sketches for the portrait. And if he had any sort of relationship with Adele, over that time, it’s over.

Jeanne Hébuterne studied at Academia Colarossi, a private art school. There she met the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, who chose her as models among the Institution’s students. Soon, between them, a romance arose. Jeanne moved in with Modigliani and became the main subject of his painting: the artist made approximately 25 portraits of him. The couple had a daughter, named after her mother: Jeanne.

Modigliani, who suffered from tuberculous meningitis, died at the age of just 35 in January 1920. Jeanne Hébuterne, who was expecting her second child, maddened by grief, committed suicide the day after her lover’s death. The artist’s sister took charge of the education and upbringing of Amedeo and Jeanne’s daughter.

The model for Valentín Serov’s work, “Girl with Peaches”, was named Vera Mamontova and was the daughter of a wealthy philanthropist, Savva Mamontov. One day, Vera came home from a walk and sat at the table, holding a peach from her own garden in her hands. There were her parents and the artist Valentín Serov, visiting the farm. For the next two months, this 12-year-old girl posed for many hours every day for a painting that later became famous.

Vera Mamontova was also painted by Viktor Vasnetsov (her image appears on the canvas of “Aliónushka”), Mikhail Vrubel and Nikolai Kuznetsov.

The daughter of an unmarried washerwoman, French artist Suzanne Valadon was the first woman to be accepted into the French Union of Artists. She was a model for many famous artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who portrayed her in two paintings from his dance series: “Dance in Bougival” (pictured right) and “Dance in the City” .

Toulouse-Lautrec saw Suzanne completely differently: in this artist’s portrait (pictured above) she appears with a sad face, a dark and absent look, as well as tight-lipped lips. Toulouse-Lautrec was the first of the artists to see Suzanne Valadon’s drawings, encouraging her to study painting and it was he who gave her the pseudonym Suzanne. At birth, Valadon was named Marie-Clementine. It is noteworthy that, thanks to her studies in painting, Suzanne Valadon, even during her lifetime, achieved success both from a creative and economic point of view.

Jeanne Samary was a French actress at the Comédie-Française theatre. Before getting married, she lived close to Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s studio and often visited him to pose. In 1877-1878, the artist painted 4 portraits of Jeanne. Each of them was significantly different from the others in terms of color, composition and sizes. One of the most famous is entitled “Jeanne Samary in a low-cut dress” (right image), which is in the collection of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Jane Avril was a cancan dancer at the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris, a favorite model and friend of the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Jane spoke at the opening of the Moulin Rouge in 1889 and became very famous. It was Avril who, at the end of the 19th century, introduced the cancan fashion to the main European capitals, and the fame of this dancer extended far beyond, not only the limits of Parisian cabaret, but of France in general. She toured England, Switzerland and Belgium.

Toulouse-Lautrec represented Jane in 15 drawings, 20 paintings, lithographs and two posters, not only during the dance, but also in her daily life.

The Czech painter Alfons Mucha gained fame thanks to the collaboration of Sarah Bernhardt, famous French dramatic actress. It all started when Mucha painted a poster for Sarah and her theater “Renaissance” with the play “Gismonda”. The poster caused a sensation and pleased the actress so much that she signed an exclusive contract with the artist for 6 years.

During this period, posters were created for a number of performances and also for Sarah Bernhardt Day (pictured right): a celebration that included a banquet, musical plays and dramatic scenes on stage to honor the actress. In this poster, Mucha employed elements typical of his characteristic style: a background made in the form of a mosaic, intricate floral ornaments, the protagonist’s luxurious hair and a circle on the head, similar to a halo.

Elena Diákonova, or, as she was called, Gala (“big party” in French), was ten years older than Salvador Dalí. They met in 1929, at that time she was the wife of the French poet Paul Éluard. Dalí and Gala, who left Éluard, did not part for 53 years: until his death.

She became the artist’s wife, muse and model. Gala took the reins of all her spouse’s financial affairs, thanks to this, the artist’s work began to bring good income. And Dalí painted countless portraits of her.

In the mid-1950s, Picasso lived and worked in the south of France. One day, a young blonde on the terrace of his workshop, next to his studio, caught his attention. He painted the girl without her noticing and then showed her his drawings. When he asked if she would agree to pose, she nodded mutely. Her name was Sylvette David.

The collaboration of Picasso and Sylvette David gave rise to a whole series of works, which can be easily recognized by the lush blonde locks. In total, Picasso reproduced more than 60 images of Sylvette. He gave her one of these portraits, and with the money from the sale, Sylvette was able to buy a house in Paris.

Olga Jojlova was a ballerina with the Russian Ballets of Diaghilev and the wife of Pablo Picasso. He married her following the orthodox rite. Jojlova gave birth to Picasso’s son Paulo. They separated after 17 years of marriage, although Olga remained Picasso’s legal wife for 37 years: until his death. This happened because Picasso refused to divide his assets equally, including the paintings he had fetid, as required by the marriage contract between them.

Tense relations in marriage are reflected in paintings: at the beginning of their love story, Olga’s portraits were realistic, and at the time of the breakup of the marriage, Picasso depicts her exclusively catering to surrealism. An example of this is the painting “Woman with a Hat (Olga)”.

Jacqueline Roque was the second wife and muse of Pablo Picasso. When the artist first saw her, she was 26 and he was 72. Six years after they met, they got married. The marriage lasted 11 years, until the artist’s death. Picasso painted more than 400 portraits of Jacqueline: he drew her more often than any other model or lover. Jacqueline was distressed by Picasso’s death and, 13 years after his departure, committed suicide on the eve of a retrospective of his works.

“Jacqueline with Crossed Arms” is one of Picasso’s most famous portraits of Jacqueline Roque.

Lydia Délectorskaya was a Russian translator and secretary to the French artist Henri Matisse. She came to Matisse after reading an advertisement at a bus stop in Nice for an artist looking for an assistant.

Lydia, 22, became the nurse for Matisse’s 63-year-old mother. And later, the painter saw in her an ideal model for his works. Lydia combined the role of Matisse’s nurse and secretary, as she posed for him for 3-4 hours a day. Twice a year, Matisse gave her some of his drawings so that she could secure her future. After the artist’s death, Lydia donated Matisse’s works that she had inherited to the Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum.

Looking globally at Chagall’s works, the image of a woman stands out, his wife Bella Chagall (Rosenfeld by birth). “When I’m with Bella, I don’t walk, I fly,” said the artist. It is not by chance that he represents in his works the lovers who levitate over the earth. The image of his wife is present in hundreds of works by the artist. When Bella died in 1944, Chagall was unable to return to work for a year. He continued to honor his wife in her works and after her death.

In 1857, Jane and her sister went to the theater, where the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones noticed her. They were impressed by Jane’s beauty and convinced her to pose for them. She later worked as a model for…