~ Muses & Egeria, Emilie Louise Flöge ~

Emilie Louise Flöge (1874–1952) was an Austrian fashion designer, businesswoman and the life companion of the painter Gustav Klimt.

In 1894, Pauline, her elder sister, opened a dressmaking school and Emilie worked there. In 1899 the two sisters won a dressmaking competition and were commissioned to make a batiste dress for an exhibition. The same year Flöge handmade the wedding dress for the mother of Gustav Klimt Heiress Maria Altmann.

In partnership with her sister Helene, after 1904 Flöge established herself as a successful businesswoman and the owner of the haute couture fashion salon known as Schwestern Flöge in Vienna. In this salon, which had been designed by the architect Josef Hoffmann, she presented designer clothing in the style of the Wiener Werkstätte. This style was promoted by the feminist movement in Vienna and was characterized by high bodices, a loose silhouette, and billowing sleeves. After the Anschluss with the German Third Reich in 1938, Flöge lost her most important customers and had to close her salon.

In 1891, Helene, one of Emilie's two older sisters, married Ernst Klimt, the brother of Gustav Klimt. When Ernst died in December 1892, Gustav was made Helene's guardian. At that time Emilie was eighteen years old and Gustav became a frequent guest at the home of her parents, spending the summers with the Flöge family. Klimt portrayed her in many of his works. Some believe that his painting The Kiss (1907–08) shows the artist and Emilie Flöge as lovers.

Painting : Emilie Flöge, by Gustav Klimt

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~ Muses & Egeria, Jeanne Hébuterne ~

Jeanne Hébuterne (1898–1920) was a French painter and art model best known as the frequent subject and wife of Amedeo Modigliani.

A beautiful girl, she was introduced to the artistic community in Montparnasse by her brother André Hébuterne, who wanted to become a painter. Wanting to pursue a career in the arts, and with a talent for drawing, she chose to study at the Académie Colarossi, where in the spring of 1917 Hébuterne was introduced to Amedeo Modigliani by the sculptor Chana Orloff, who came with many other artists to take advantage of the academy's live models.

Jeanne began an affair with the charismatic artist, the two fell deeply in love and she became a principal subject for Modigliani's art. In the spring 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, Jeanne Modigliani, 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. In 1920, Modigliani died, when Jeanne was eight months pregnant with their second child. Hébuterne's family brought her to their home, but she threw herself out of the fifth-floor apartment window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child.

Painting : Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Jeanne Hebuterne, by Amedeo Modigliani 

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~ Muses & Egeria, Apollonie Sabatier ~

Apollonie Sabatier (1822–1890) was a French entertainer, artist's model and courtesan, who became a salon hostess and bohemian muse to many of the French artists of 1850s Paris.

Aglaé Joséphine Savatier’s mother was Marguerite Martin, who worked as a laundress for Count Louis Harmand d'Abancourt, Aglaé's biological father. The count arranged after Aglaé's birth that army sergeant André Savatier, who was stationed near the village, became her stepfather. Martin and Savatier were married in 1825.

The family moved to Paris, where Aglaé started singing at the Opéra Garnier after school. She changed her name to Apollonie and became a painter's model and posed for the statue Femme piquée par un serpent (1847) by Auguste Clésinger which is currently on display at the Musée d'Orsay. This image caused a scandal at the Salon of 1847 and made the sculptor and model famous.

Sabatier hosted a salon in Paris on Rue Frochot, near the Place Pigalle, where she met nearly all of the French artists of her time. Gustave Flaubert, Théophile Gautier and some others have written articles about her and she was one of four women (Caroline, Jeanne Duval, herself and Marie Daubrun) who inspired Charles Baudelaire's famous work Les Fleurs du Mal. Sabatier and Baudelaire were lovers from 1857 to 1862.

Illustration : Woman Bitten by a Serpent, sculpture by Auguste Clésinger

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~ Muses & Egeria, Alexa Wilding ~

Alexa Wilding (1847–1884) was one of the favourite models of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, featuring in some of his finest paintings of the later 1860s and 1870s. She sat for more of his finished works than any other of his well-known muses, including Elizabeth Siddall, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth.

Comparatively little is known about Wilding, while Rossetti's other models, Siddall, Morris and Cornforth, are frequently written about. This is perhaps partly due to the lack of any romantic or sexual connection between the pair, which differentiates Rossetti's relationship with Wilding from those with his other muses.

Wilding was first seen by Rossetti in 1865 and he was immediately impressed by her beauty. She agreed to sit for him the following day for a proposed painting of Aspecta Medusa, but failed to arrive as planned; it is possible that she was put off by the morally dubious reputation of models at that time. Weeks went by, and Rossetti had given up the idea of the painting he had in mind. So important did he consider the look of this specific model to it, when he spotted her again in the street, he jumped from the cab he was in and persuaded her to be led straight back to his studio. He paid her a weekly fee to sit for him exclusively, afraid that other artists might also employ her. The two shared a lasting bond.

In Rossetti's paintings, Wilding's elegant looks and ethereal beauty were in contrast to another of Rossetti's models, the voluptuous Fanny Cornforth. Wilding's more refined features were substituted for Cornforth's in Lady Lilith (1864–1868), in part when Rossetti's patron and owner of the painting Frederick Leyland considered the original too earthy.

Painting : La Ghirlandata modelled by Alexa Wilding, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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~ Muses & Egeria, Emma Hamilton ~

Lady Emma Hamilton (1765–1815) was an English model, dancer and actress. She began her career in London's demi-monde, becoming the mistress of a series of wealthy men, culminating in the naval hero Lord Nelson, and was the favourite model and muse of the portraitist George Romney.

The daughter of a blacksmith, she was calling herself Emily Hart when, in 1781, she began to live with Charles Francis Greville, nephew of her future husband, Sir William Hamilton, British envoy to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1786 Greville sent her to Naples to be his uncle’s mistress in return for Hamilton’s payment of Greville’s debts. On Sept. 6, 1791, she and Hamilton were married.

A beautiful woman whose portrait was frequently painted by George Romney, Lady Emma Hamilton was already a great favourite in Neapolitan society and was the diplomatic intermediary between her husband and her close friend Queen Maria Carolina of Naples. It was said that Lady Hamilton facilitated Nelson’s victory over the French in the Battle of the Nile (Aug. 1, 1798) by securing Neapolitan permission for his fleet to obtain stores and water in Sicily.

Lady Hamilton and Nelson, who had met in 1793, became lovers after his Nile triumph. In 1800, when the British government recalled Hamilton, Nelson returned with him and his wife to England, where she flaunted her control over the admiral. They had two daughters, one of whom survived infancy. After her husband’s death (April 6, 1803) she lived with Nelson at Merton, Surrey. Although she inherited money from both men (Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar, Oct. 21, 1805), she squandered most of it, was imprisoned for debt (1813–14), and died in impecunious exile.

Painting : Emma Hamilton in a Straw Hat, by George Romney

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~ Muses & Egeria, Rosina Ferrara ~

Rosina Ferrara (1861–1934) was an Italian artist's model from the island of Capri, who became the favorite muse of John Singer Sargent.

In the 19th century, American and European painters and writers traveled to the island of Capri for its beautiful coastline, blue-green water, architecture, relaxed and rich culture and the "exceptional beauty of its people".

John Singer Sargent came to Anacapri in the summer of 1878, as had other of his friends who were artists. While there, he met and became a friend of Frank Hyde and worked in his studio. Taken by Ferrara's beauty, he made twelve paintings of her over one year, including A Capriote, Head of an Anacapri Girl, and Capri Girl on a Rooftop.

In 1891 in Rome, she married American painter George Randolph Barse and moved to the United States shortly after the marriage. In 1934, she died of pneumonia.

Captivated by her beauty, a variety of 19th-century artists, including Charles Sprague Pearce, Frank Hyde, and George Randolph Barse, made works of art of her.

Painting : Rosina, in A Capriote, by John Singer Sargent

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~ Muses & Egeria, Maria Zambaco ~

Maria Zambaco (1843–1914) was a British sculptor and artist's model of Greek descent, favoured by the Pre-Raphaelites.

Maria was a daughter of wealthy Anglo-Hellenic merchant Demetrios Cassavetti and niece of the Greek Consul and noted patron Alexander Constantine Ionides. Maria and her cousins Marie Spartali Stillman and Aglaia Coronio were known collectively among friends as "the Three Graces", after the Charites of Greek mythology. After inheriting her father's fortune in 1858, she was able to lead a more independent life.

Maria dedicated herself to art, and studied at the Slade School under Alphonse Legros and under Auguste Rodin in Paris. She worked as a sculptor in the 1880s, sharing studio space in London with Louise Jopling. She exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887 and the 1889 Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in London. She exhibited at the Paris Salon as well.

Familiar within the circles of the Pre-Raphaelites for her dark red hair and pale skin, she did her most notable modelling for artist Edward Burne-Jones. She also sat as a model for James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Burne-Jones first met her in 1866, when her mother commissioned him to paint her as Cupid and Psyche, and they had an affair which lasted until at least January 1869 and they stayed in contact after. In 1869, Edward Burne-Jones attempted to leave his wife for her, which caused a great scandal.

After they broke up, Maria continued to appear in Burne-Jones' paintings as a sorceress or a temptress, such as in his last major work of her, The Beguiling of Merlin (1872–1877), and the controversial Phyllis and Demophoön (1870), which was removed from display at the Royal Watercolour Society.

Painting : Maria Zambaco, in Cupid and Psyche, by Edward Burne-Jones

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~ Muses & Egeria, Sarah Helen Whitman ~

Sarah Helen Whitman (1803—1878) was an American poet and essayist, noted for her literary criticism and perhaps best remembered for her alliance with Edgar Allan Poe.

Sarah Power from an early age was an avid reader of novels and of poetry, especially that of Lord Byron. In 1828 she married John W. Whitman, a Boston writer and editor. Through his influence her first published poems appeared in the Boston Spectator and Ladies’ Album under the signature Helen. In Boston she became acquainted with literary society and was exposed to the intellectual ferment of Unitarianism and Transcendentalism. She was particularly interested in metaphysical notions and mesmerism.

Whitman’s poems appeared in Sarah J. Hale’s Ladies’ Magazine and other periodicals, and, under the name Egeria, Whitman began publishing critical essays and articles on various topics of interest. After her husband’s death in 1833 she continued to write and publish both prose and poetry and became Rhode Island’s leading litterateur. In 1848 she published in the Home Journal of New York a playful (and anonymous) valentine poem to Edgar Allan Poe. After he learned the source of the compliment, he returned it in the second of his poems entitled “To Helen.” A feverishly romantic literary courtship ensued, and in November they became engaged. Partly through the intervention of Whitman’s mother, the engagement was broken a month later.

Whitman published a series of articles on spiritualism in the New York Tribune in 1851 and a volume of verse titled Hours of Life, and Other Poems in 1853. She also interested herself in the cause of women’s suffrage, serving as vice president of the Rhode Island suffrage association from its organization in 1868.

Painting : Sarah Helen Whitman, by John Nelson Arnold, after an original painting by Cephas Giovanni Thompson

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~ Muses & Egeria, Charlotte von Stein ~

Charlotte von Stein (1742—1827) was a German writer and an intimate friend of and important influence on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The eldest daughter of the Weimar master of the court ceremonies, Stein became lady in waiting to the duchess Anna Amalia, subsequently marrying Friedrich, Freiherr von Stein, equerry to Duke Charles Augustus of Saxe-Weimar.

On Goethe’s arrival in Weimar (1775) an intimate friendship began, and the ensuing Seelenbund (“union of souls”) was of considerable influence on Goethe’s life and work; Goethe’s letters and poems to Stein demonstrate their close attachment. She was the inspiration for the female figures Iphigenie in his Iphigenie auf Tauris and Natalie in Wilhelm Meister.

After Goethe’s return from Italy (1788), his relations with Christiane Vulpius, whom he later married, caused a break in the friendship. By 1801, however, Stein and Goethe had achieved some reconciliation.

She remained for Goethe an unattainable feminine ideal and should not be confused with the warm and simple Lotte, heroine of The Sorrows of Young Werther, who was inspired by Goethe’s earlier attachment to Charlotte Buff.

Stein wrote several plays, including Rino (1776), a small humorous piece on Goethe and ladies of the court, and the prose tragedy Dido (1792; published 1867), a work containing many allusions to her break with him.

Painting : Goethe and Charlotte von Stein in conversation

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