Imperia Cognati (also called Imperia La Divina, meaning Imperia The Divine, or The Queen of Courtesans, 3 August 1486 – 15 August 1512), was a Roman courtesan. She has been considered the first celebrity of the class of courtesans, which was created in Rome in the late 15th century. (more…)
Tag: New York City
Watch: The Tragic Story of Audrey Munson
Not many people know Audrey Munson by name—but if you’ve spent any time in New York City, you’ve seen her face. Munson’s likeness tops some of the city’s grandest buildings. Even when she is remembered, it’s often for the more scandalous and tragic events in her life (controversy around her nude modeling; struggles with depression) rather than her essential role in the creative process, and her work as an advocate for the rights of creative women.
The tragic story of model and muse Audrey Munson
Not many people know Audrey Munson by name—but if you’ve spent any time in New York City, you’ve seen her face. Munson’s likeness tops some of the city’s grandest buildings. Even when she is remembered, it’s often for the more scandalous and tragic events in her life (controversy around her nude modeling; struggles with depression) rather than her essential role in the creative process, and her work as an advocate for the rights of creative women.
Posted by Dressed To Kill Tour on Sunday, April 21, 2019
You can still see the image of Audrey Munson in museums from Hartford to San Francisco.
A statue of her, America’s first supermodel, presides over Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Mass. She holds a Bible as Evangeline in the Longfellow Memorial in Cambridge, Mass.
Audrey Munson as Walking Liberty She was even in mass circulation for decades as the model for the Walking Liberty Half Dollar.
People who saw Audrey Munson everywhere in New York nicknamed her ‘Miss Manhattan.’
Audrey appears atop the Municipal Building, at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge and on the Pulitzer Fountain in front of the Plaza.
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Portrait of Pianist Misia Sert
Misia Sert was an accomplished pianist–a student of Fauré’s, who helped her support herself by referring students to her, she also famously accompanied Caruso at parties when he sang Neapolitan songs.
But she was most famous as a salonnière, one of the women who ran Paris’ artistic and literary worlds from the 17th through the mid-20th centuries. And in this case, what a salon she had. Over her lifetime, regular attendees included Proust, Gide, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Débussy, Ravel, Satie. Ravel dedicated pieces to her, and many of the painters did portraits of her, such as this one by Bonnard. Oh, and she was especially close friends with Diaghilev (of the Ballets Russes) and Coco Chanel!
