These Are the Most Famous Muses in Art History

Ancient poets searching for inspiration used to write — Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story… First mentioned in ancient Greek mythology, the Muses were nine sister goddesses, Zeus’ daughters, who were patrons of the arts. They inspired discoveries and creations from art to sciences and were known under the names Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.

In modern and contemporary times, instead of invoking ancient muses for help, artists turned to the women in their surroundings, who inspired some of their best works of art. Many of these women were accomplished artists in their own right, although remaining outside of the dominant art history. 

Muses in art came in many forms. “The idea of ‘invoking the muse’ suggests a spirit, not a person,” says Katie McCabe, author of More Than a Muse: Creative Partnerships That Sold Talented Women Short. 

“A muse supposedly provides a source of inspiration for an artist, but that ‘source’ can come in so many different forms, whether that’s posing as an artist’s model or just offering advice and support through the creative process.“

This ambiguity, the author concludes, left many women overshadowed and underestimated in their own work. The art world especially romanticized these figures, creating the image of a young woman who is the source of creative inspiration for a male artist, removing her success and artistic autonomy from the story. 

However, as our list below shows, muses in art were often accomplished artists and professionals whose work is rediscovered today. 

Featured image: John Everett Millais – Ophelia, painting, portrait of Elizabeth Siddal, 1851-52, via Creative Commons

Elizabeth Siddal

The favourite woman model of the pre-Raphaelite artist group, Elizabeth Siddal (1829–1862), was an active painter as well. Known for her ethereal beauty, she married the leading member of the group, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. One of the famous depictions of Siddal comes from John Everett Millais and his work Ophelia, for which Siddal floated in a bathtub full of water to evoke the tragic heroine. 

After marrying Rossetti in 1849, she stopped modelling for other members of the group. In 1863, a year after her death, Rossetti immortalized her beauty in Beata Beatrix, where Siddal is presented as the praying daughter of a noble Florentine family that also died young. Siddal is the main protagonist of several of his other paintings, including Ecce Ancilla Domini (1849-50) and Regina Cordium (The Queen of Hearts).

Coming from a working-class background, Siddal suffered from poor health and addiction to laudanum, leading to her death at the age of 32. 

Featured image: Man Ray – Le Violon d’Ingres (Ingres’s Violin), 1924, via Creative Commons 

Kiki de Montparnasse

Born as Alice Ernestine Prin, Kiki de Montparnasse (1901–1953) was a nightclub singer, actress, painter, and model. She was the muse of the Surrealist photographer Man Ray but also sat for Alexander Calder, Amedeo Modigliani, Moise Kisling, and others. 

She most famously appeared in Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres from 1924, in which her back is made to resemble a violin and Noire et Blanche.

Besides being a muse, Kiki de Montparnasse was also active in visual arts and painted everyday scenes, including a circus and city life that she exhibited in Paris in 1927.

Featured image: Victorine-Louise Meurent, c. 1865, from an album of photographic portraits belonging to Édouard Manet, via Creative Commons

Victorine Meurent

There is not much information about Victorine Meurent (1844-1927). Like many other male artist muses, she was also an artist who exhibited at the 1876 Salon. She was an inspiration to Édouard Manet and was featured in several of his works. 

As the legend goes, Manet saw Meurent pushing her way through a busy street, which inspired him to paint in a new way that defied academism. Le Déjeuner sur L’Herbe and Olympia are two of the most famous paintings for which Meurent modeled, naked and posed nonchalantly, which was quite shocking at the time. 

Featured image: Marie-Therese, the muse of Picasso, at Dinard, Brittany in 1928, via Creative Commons

Marie-Thérèse Walter

Modern and contemporary artists also had their muses. The woman who inspired Pablo Picasso was Marie-Thérèse Walter (1909 -1977).  She was behind some of the greatest works by Picasso and was his favourite model during the artist’s surrealist period. She was also the artist’s lover between 1927 and 1935; he created more pieces of art inspired by her than by any other woman. 

Read more about Picasso’s legacy.

Among Picasso’s world-famous paintings depicting Marie-Thérèse Walter are Le Rêve and Nude and Green Leaves & Bust. The works are not portrait paintings in the classical sense, but are renderings of Walter by Picasso in his recognizable style. The pair met in a Paris department store early in Walter’s life, when Walter was only 17, and immediately started a love affair. She committed suicide four years after Picasso’s death. 

Featured image: World – famous actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1864. Photo by Félix Nadar, via Creative Commons

Sarah Bernhardt

The French stage actress, Sarah Bernhardt (1844 – 1923) who starred in the leading French plays from the late 19th and early 20th century, is considered the muse of Art Nouveau. Some of the leading artists painted her portraits in Paris, including Alphonse Mucha. 

Besides her stage presence, Bernhardt’s photographs turned her into an idol and a beauty ideal, which influenced the fashion and jewellery design of her time. In visual arts, Bernhardt’s strongest influence came through poster design created by Mucha. The posters proved to be so popular that collectors bribed bill stickers to get them and even went out at night to cut them down from the hoardings. 

Featured image: Salvador Dalí –  Galarina, painting, 1944 portrait of Gala, via Creative Commons

Gala Diakonova

Perhaps the most famous figure among 20th-century muses in art is Gala Diakonova (1894 – 1982), the wife of Salvador Dalí. Besides Dalí, Gala was also the muse for other surrealist artists such as her first husband Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, and André Breton. 

Among the famous art pieces featuring Gala are Dalí’s Leda Atomica, Portrait of Galarina, and Galatea of the Spheres. The influence of Gala on Dalí was so strong that he often signed his works with both of their names. 

Featured image: Camille Claudel (left) and sculptor Jessie Lipscomb in their Paris studio in the mid-1880s, via Creative Commons

Camille Claudel

The work of Camille Claudel (1864 – 1943) has been only recently rediscovered. In the past, she was mainly considered Auguste Rodin’s assistant, lover, and muse who helped him with his works, while her own practice was widely forgotten. 

Although she destroyed many of her works, she is considered today to be an important influence on Rodin, as he significantly changed his practice after meeting her. 

However, Camille Claudel also had a passion for sculpture and she sculpted several portraits of Rodin. Since 1884, she worked in Rodin’s studio as an assistant but was also creating sculptures of which the best known are The Age of Maturity (1893–1900) and The Gossips (1897). In 1914, she was committed to a psychiatric hospital and remained there until her death.