Throughout history, the source of inspiration for many great artists has been a particular special person whom they find to be unique. Holly Holder looks into the role of the artist’s muse, and ponders over its place within the modern day art world

 

Karl Lagerfeld, of Chanel fame, will be turning eighty this year; his work marks him as one of the most successful fashion designers ever known. Lagerfeld has a perpetual iconic look of monochrome but his undisputed accessory on the red carpet is a muse. Never is Karl seen without the It girl of the moment. Sashaying down the carpet alongside him, the girl in question is often beautiful, more than half the age of Lagerfeld and the source of inspiration for the Chanel House. Traditionally in history, male artists formed the basis of their work from the inspiration and creativity gained from their muse. Some of the more well-known examples in history stretch from Victorine Meurent from Manet’s Olympia to Edie Sedgewick who inspired Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol. But what is the relationship between a muse and the artist? Is it skin deep or something more subterranean?

In history, a muse may be described simply as that hidden feminine part of the male artist that is only brought to light through sex. Germain Greer states bluntly, that in the relationship between artist and muse, the role is often inverted with the woman inspiring the male as he brings forth the creativity from “the womb of the mind.” An early example of a muse is that of Elizabeth Siddall, who lay in icy cold waters for hours posing for Millais’s notorious Ophelia painting. Elizabeth and Millais’s relationship was purely creative, her auburn hair and child-like limbs simply fitted Millais’s image of Ophelia. Their relationship was short and purely platonic.

A more modern and contemptuous artist muse relationship is that of Alfred Hitchcock and his blonde beauty Tippi Hedren. In The Girl , the BBC re-create Tippi Hedren’s early acting career as she was flung from diet drink commercials to play the leading role in Alfred Hitchcock’s films The Birds and Marnie. The Girl more acutely documented Hitchcock’s growing fixation with Hedren, but also his obsessive nature with violence. Throughout the series Hitchcock is portrayed as a sexual predator, deftly attempting to lure Hedren into his affection. But sometimes these affections went too far, for example his commissioned costume designs for Hedren, were not to be worn just for filming, but at all times. The women subsequently ended up becoming Hitchcock’s puppets, playing dress-up and entertaining his fantasies. Hedren’s hold over Hitchcock meant that jealously oozed from his pores, his only release being in the form of violence. One particular scene in The Birds has Hedren being attacked by live birds, pecking and biting at her. Initially only supposed to be filmed in a few takes, the scene took five days. On the fifth day, bruised and fatigued by continuous filming the attacks became relentless, resulting in a deep cut on Hedren’s lower lip and left eye. Physically and mentally damaged, she wanted out but Hitchcock threatened her career in retaliation. Hitchcock and Hedren’s artist muse relationship (like Siddall and Millais’s) creatively ended positively with The Birds going on to critical acclaim, but their relationship was tarred by Hitchcock’s fixation on Hedren.

Nowadays, the artist and the muse relationship appear on a more commercial level. With modern art moving away from the traditional female body there are fewer reasons for artists to find their creative outlet in the female form. Muses, to an extent, still exist in film and music where beauty and talent are still the main focus of both subjects. But for those artists who would have traditionally been inspired by a muse’s individuality, beauty and persona, the internet and the blogosphere now takes a new lead. Damien Hirst states his inspiration for his spin paintings came from Blue Peter, and Tracey Emin’s work is inspired by more political matters such as pregnancy rates in her local county.

Nevertheless, I believe the modern age concept of a muse does still exists, but rather than a one-on-one relationship between artist and muse, the relationship has now moved to a definition more broadly spanning a role model. For Karl Largerfeld, one of fashion’s major moguls his main aim is to make people buy his work and to do that he needs to sport an enviable muse; a woman that every girl of the time wants to be and every man wants to marry. The relationship has moved from private to public, from romantic love to creative coupling: the muse does not inspire one person but inspires a generation.