A creative person is looking for inspiration in everything: for someone it is the morning sun, for someone the smell of mown grass, and someone is inspired by women. Our site will tell you about three great artists whose muses have become Russian beauties.
Muse of legal marriage
Pablo Picasso. Portrait of Olga in an armchair. 1917. Picasso Museum, Paris, France
The artist painted a portrait of Olga in an armchair at the very beginning of their acquaintance, when the girl had just become his irreplaceable and wonderful muse. Looking at the subsequent paintings by Picasso, in which he represents Olga, you can see how the artist's love turns into hate. At first, Olga was gentle, fragile and incredibly attractive, as the artist himself saw her. Over time, when the girl begins to annoy him, she gradually turns into a horse. After 10 years of marriage, Picasso decides to leave the Russian muse, but does not give her a divorce, since he is not going to share pictures with her.
Pablo Picasso. Portrait of Olga Khokhlova in a mantilla. 1917. Picasso Museum, Malaga, Spain.
Muse of the inner world
Salvador Dali. Atomic Leda. 1949. Dali Theater-Museum, Figueres, Spain.
Dali's "Atomic Leda" became one of the artist's best-selling paintings, in which the master presented the muse and love of his life - Checkmark. She was not only a lover for, but also a secretary, nanny and manager, in a word, she was everything in his life.
Salvador Dali and Gala.
Interestingly, despite his style, the only person he painted in a realistic style was Gala, this is because the only reality in his life was only her.
Salvador Dali "The Corpuscular Azure Ascension of the Madonna", 1952.
Before meeting Dali, she was the muse of the French poet Paul Eluard (and even marry him) and the German artist Max Ernst. But as soon as Dali appeared in her life, she left everyone for the sake of a not yet so popular and young artist.
Muse of a happy old age
Henri Matisse. Girl in a blue blouse (Portrait of Lydia Delectorskaya). 1939. State Hermitage.
Mathis painted a lot of Lydia Delectorskaya, once even admitted: “When I'm bored, I make a portrait of Madame Lydia. I know her like a letter. " And therefore it is very difficult to choose any one portrait of the master's muse. Note that Lydia brought the painting "Girl in a Blue Blouse" with her to the Soviet Union and presented it to the Hermitage.
The meeting between a young emigrant and a famous master can be called fateful. After an unsuccessful marriage, the girl had to look for a job in order to somehow live. And knocking on the door of Mathis, she found here not only shelter, but also the love of her life. 22-year-old Lydia became a secretary, assistant and main muse of the artist, and in the future she was such a close person that she herself admitted more than once: “for 20 years she was“the light of his eyes”, and for me he is the only meaning of life”.
Henri Matisse. Portrait of Lydia Delectorskaya. 1947. State Hermitage Museum.
