Perienne Christian is, herself, an artist; an art school tutor suggested to her that she might be a good fit for Freud, who was in the market for a model. Sure enough, she began modeling for the legendary artist three times a week, each session lasting about five sessions. Theirs, she's at pains to say, is a purely professional relationship - she has a boyfriend - and their kinship bears more resemblance to that of Matisse and Dina Vierny than, say, Picasso and anyone. But it still fits the traditional "muse" mold: older artist/teacher and much younger woman.

In her book Lives of the Muses, Francine Prose defines the term rather loosely, (Yoko Ono, for instance, keeps company with the shop girls whom the pre-Raphaelites picked up, immortalized, and discarded) but many of the pairings - Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine, Charis and Edward Weston - hew to this dynamic. Where the original Grecian nine might have had powers to bestow, in modern history it's been more about enabling others.' "Inspiration," historically, often seems to have been conflated with "reflection." When you think "muse" it's not an intellectual challenge that comes to mind so much as a passive enigma, someone on whom to reflect one's own conceptions of beauty.

That's a generalization of course, but too often the term evokes a dominant (male) personality and a dependent woman who lives the art. In our modern times, the muse is usually personified as an anemic "Magic Pixie Dream Girl," whose sole raison d'etre is to inspire the mediocre reveries of Zach Braff and a generation of Mumblecore auteurs - or sugar-coat groupie-ism, a la Penny Lane. The muse, after all, exists to inspire and enable. This is supposed to be enough. Says Christian, herself a painter,"It is very inspiring to be around somebody who is such a brilliant painter and is so dedicated to his craft."

Lucian Freud paints new muse - artist one third of his age [Telegraph]
Related: Manic Pixie Dream Girls Are The Scourge Of Modern Cinema

Over time however, a deep friendship developed between the shy, aging artist and the young girl, reinvigorating his career and changing the direction of Vierny's life. In the 1940s, when Vierny was arrested for aiding several artists and intellectuals to flee the Nazis, her old friend Maillol hired a lawyer and sent her to stay with his friend Henri Matisse. She became a muse for Matisse, as well, and he encouraged her to pursue her interest in collecting art. Unlike many such relationships, Vierny was never romantically involved with her mentors, but their affection was profound: Vierny created the Musee Maillol, and at 89 still lives above it, amongst her portraits. [NPR]

Reports the Times:

Lighted by sparkling chandeliers, the hall is 100 feet by 25 feet, with a soaring 22-foot-high coffered ceiling in gilt and lacquer. The walls are embellished with gilt cherubs, roses, feathers, foliage and birds. Enormous and richly hued paintings in elaborate jeweled frames depict romantic, mythological and biblical scenes.

58-year-old Dr. Anthony Walter of Houston was a successful orthopedic surgeon before recuperation from illness turned him onto art. Since, hand-painting, gilding, inlaying and carving his palatial home (which takes elements from the Vatican, Versailles and St. Paul's) has become his full-time job, "a tribute to his wife, Susan... meant to teach others how to achieve God’s salvation through marital love. It is also his take on Christianity."

Walter's goal was not merely to portray the Bible in a clearly understandable way, but to "say with my decorative art... that morality is accepting the consequences of your actions, which no one is willing to do these days,” which is why the paintings have themes like charity and repentance. The tableaux of his wife are somewhat less traditional, described as portraying Walter "in a toga or courtly garb reaching passionately for her or bowing before her." Susan, a retired lawyer, for her part, says “'I get a little embarrassed sometimes...But it certainly makes me feel special.'”

The project alternately strikes one as a touching tribute, an impressive display of discipline, and a testament to great hubris, the latter impression enforced by grandiose statements like, "I am a huge threat (to modern art museums) because what I have done renders everything they have junk...I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant but the reaction of people who come in here tells me the power of it.” It's tempting to wonder if part of the reaction is merely stupefaction at the scale and grandeur of the project. Of course, Taj Mahal-style tributes are always about both giver and muse, so it's probably unfair to criticize the undertaking on that ground. What's interesting is that like Laura or Beatrice, his wife seems to have had no choice in becoming part of a grandiose moral allegory or the embodiment of "good." That's probably in keeping with the traditional role of a muse, but it's still somewhat disconcerting to see it acted out so literally in this day in age - a tribute to classical art, indeed. Or a testament to the dangers of early retirement.

At Houston Surgeon’s Home, An Ode To His Wife And To God [New York Times]

Cochrane shows Tilley as anything but a shrinking violet. "There is something so active and punchy about Tilley's language, that it seems very difficult to imagine her doing anything that she didn't want to do," Cochrane writes. But what about Freud's children, whom he painted in the nude as teenagers? His daughter Rose said of posing in the nude for her pops, "People think there must be an Oedipal thing because of Sigmund Freud, but there isn't." You're right, it's an Electra thing! Freud's other daughter, Esther, who posed for him at 16, said she got to know her father through his painting her. "We'd never lived in the same city before…I simply took my clothes off and sat on a sofa when he asked. It never occurred to me to be ashamed."

There is something to be said for not being ashamed of one's nudity, but in the context of a father gazing upon his offspring's naked flesh for hours on end, it must be said that the matter is a little more complex than Esther is allowing. Just as the recent Australian scandal over nude photographs of young girls shows.

Here's the story: Police shut down a Sydney art exhibition of photographer Bill Henson's work because it featured naked photos of 12 and 13 year old girls. Even the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, came out against Henson, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. "I find [the photographs] absolutely revolting…Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff - frankly I don't think there are any - just allow kids to be kids."

Rudd's assumption is that there is something sexual or at least sinister going on between photographer and subject that robs the subject of her innocence. Again, I don't think the matter is that cut and dry. Though it is undeniable that there are power dynamics at play, it remains to be seen whether those dynamics are necessarily destructive.

[Photograph of Lucien Freud's "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" by Martin Goodwin]

The Eye Of The Muse [Guardian]
Rudd Revolted [Sydney Morning Herald]

Earlier: Being A Muse Kinda Sucks