Misia Sert, 1872-1950, was a female pianist and friend of numerous artists, for whom she was an important model.
Her home on the Rue St. Florentine became a well-known cultural salon, for artists as Claude Monet, Pierre Renoir, Redon, Signac and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Misia Sert was Madame Verdurin in the roman A la recherche du temps perdu, illustrated by Kees van Dongen.
Misia became the model of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Watch the video Misia queen of Paris:
Nude model. Life modelling or the impact of an artist’s life model.
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Every time I enjoy to draw models by life. Passers-by on a naturist campsite or a nude model during the drawing sessions.
Life modelling
For me I think of objects, legs or arms, head, break lines and curves in the body. Division of space, straight lines and curved ones.
When I have a model who is quiet and steady, then I draw as long as a drawing gives me more from the rest.
Nude model
Most models are on occasion. Physique is not the main issue for my model. All kinds of figures, slim or fat are acceptable.
I prefer the female nude model, but from time to time I draw male models.
What must nude models do and don’t
Models must holding still. I look for interesting poses. Good imaginative, energetic poses. For me it is the pose of the nude model that indicates the depth of the artwork, not the character of the model. So I can work with photos taken of the model.
I prefer normal poses from everyday life and not so called interesting poses, because of the extreme position of arms and legs.
Famous nude and life models
Alice Prin, also known as Kiki from Montparnasse or the Queen of Montparnasse (1901 – 1953), was a French nude model in Paris in the ’20st.
Kiki as nude model
Model, future painter herself, singer, began to pose nude as a model at age 14. One day her mother burst in the studio where she was posing nude and forbade her to go home. However, later became Kiki , thanks to its beauty and its unconventional character, a friend of the artists of Paris in the ’20st, playing among other films in the role of the fallen woman and posing for dozens of artists.
Kiki was a very independent woman, that even in difficult times. Well known is the love affair that lasted six years with Man Ray, where he became the muse and that he painted and drew in some famous pictures. In the picture, for example Violon d’Ingres, who caused a scandal and who is currently at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Man Ray overlapped the frame of her naked body to the signs of the cello. The woman’s body becomes an instrument to play, a concept far from the classical idealizations.
Kiki unique in Montparnasse
Kiki remains the embodiment of honesty, boldness and creativity that characterized that period of life perhaps unique in Montparnasse.
