YEAH BABY, SHE'S GOT IT

 

Naomi. Cindy. Heidi. Giselle.  None of these bastions of feminine beauty would have ever put a toe on a catwalk without Audrey Munson.  But Munson never modeled clothes or dated actors, pop idols or athletes (or threw a few phones at a few assistants.) Munson modeled nude for sculptors and artists in a time when women still wore corsets and ankle length skirts.  The public called Munson "American Venus," but Munson was a shy young woman who was accompanied by her mother to modeling sessions. After a bizarre incident involving a landlord Munson disappeared from public life. She died at 104 in 1996. Her perfectly proportioned pulchritude was copied hundreds of times over by many sculptors who never acknowledged the identity of their muse. 

Born Audrey Marie Monson on August 8, 1891 in Rochester, New York, Audrey moved to New York City with her mother Kittie after her parents divorce. 17 year old Audrey worked as an actress and chorus girl until a photographer asked her to pose for him. Word spread amongst artists that Audrey was a superior model in form and temperament She began posing nude when sculptor Isadore Konti used Audrey as a model for his sculpture Three Graces. Nude modeling was not pornographic in its 

intent ; nude modeling let an artist see the human (female) form in a more natural state. The artists with whom Audrey worked never expected anything sexual from her.

Audrey made four films including Inspiration in which she appeared unclothed and unspeaking ; another actress did the acting scenes. By the end of world war one Audrey's modeling opportunities dried up as artists turned their eye toward more serious subjects and no longer needed her as muse. By 1919 Audrey and Kittie lived in a boarding house and worked low paying jobs. Their landlord fell in love with Audrey and murdered his wife in an effort to be with her. Those feelings were unrequited and Audrey and Kittie fled the boardinghouse.

Audrey claimed to have written articles about her life as a model but those articles were proven to have been created by a ghostwriter. Audrey attempted suicide in 1922.  In 1931 Audrey was committed to an asylum and treated for depression and schizophrenia. She remained institutionalized for the rest of her life. Kittie died in 1958. Audrey had no visitors until a half-niece found her in 1984 and moved her to a nursing home.  Audrey Munson died in 1996 at age 104.  America's Venus died forgotten by history despite being a model of her era.