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Muse
- Narrator
- Florence Howard
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 26 May 2022
- Run Time
- 10 hours 16 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Meet the unexpected, overlooked and forgotten models of art history.
Who was Picasso's 'Weeping Woman'?
Why was Grace Jones covered in graffiti?
How did Francis Bacon meet the burglar who became his muse?
The perception of the muse is that of a passive, powerless model, at the mercy of an influential and older artist. But is this trope a romanticised myth? Far from posing silently, muses have brought emotional support, intellectual energy, career-changing creativity and practical help to artists.
Muse tells the true stories of the incredible muses who have inspired art history's masterpieces. From Leonardo da Vinci's studio to the covers of Vogue, art historian, critic and writer Ruth Millington uncovers the remarkable role of muses in some of art history's most well-known and significant works. Delving into the real-life relationships that models have held with the artists who immortalised them, it will expose the influential and active part they have played and deconstruct reductive stereotypes, reframing the muse as a momentous and empowered agent of art history.
© Ruth Millington 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
Critics Review
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Packed with tales of enchanting lives, this book puts so many forgotten and so often unnamed figures into the spotlight. Telling their stories - in ways I like to think is on their terms - Ruth Millington sheds light on so many figures we know by image, but so often not by name. An exhilarating and fascinating insight into many of the people who have shaped our culture, and who have redefined what we think and know of as 'muse'.
Katy Hessel, author of 'The Story of Art Without Men'
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A rich and detailed unravelling of the romanticised myth of the muse. Ruth Millington nimbly returns agency to the pictured people of art history and in doing so reveals their ambitions, creativity and far-reaching influence
Chloë Ashby, author of 'Wet Paint'
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'This beautifully illustrated book shines a new light on what constitutes a muse and how important they are to an artist's practice. Enlightening'
Tabish Khan
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This book not only sheds light on a relatively unchartered area of art history but also serves as a feminist crusade
Jenny Pery
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A brilliant book absolutely crammed with surprising stories. Muse flips the easel and brings the models and inspirations of famous works themselves into the spotlight, scraping away old coatings of myth, cliché and ignorance to reveal the true tales of these overlooked figures, and their place of power in the history of art. An essential read that should be on every bookshelf
Edward Brooke-Hitching, author of The Madman's Gallery
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Ruth Millington's Muse is an essential guide to the inspirational women and men who have shaped art over the centuries. Muse sheds new and persuasive light on a diverse array of models' stories - their lives, hopes and daring actions - restoring their voices in ways that change our perceptions of who they were, and who we are today as a result.
Sophie Haydock, author of 'The Flames'
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An excellent look at the artist's muse and demystifying the idea of them as merely a passive object of passion
FAD Magazine, *Summer Reads of 2022*
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A provocative tome
ARTnews
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Ruth Millington's Muse adds another dimension...taking the women (and nine men) on the canvas as her subject...successfully fleshing out the lives behind some of art history's most famous faces
Hall W. Rockefeller, Hyperallergic.com
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Muse by Ruth Millington is a fascinating book that aims, and one could even say succeeds, to establish a new status for the muse in art history
DailyArt Magazine
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Ruth Millington, illustrated by Dina Razin
- Narrator
- Florence Howard
- Duration
- 10 hours 16 minutes
- Release Date
- 26 May 2022
- ISBN
- 9781529900811
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Human figures depicted in art, Portraits and self-portraiture in art, History of art, Individual artists, art monographs, Social and cultural history, True stories: general
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.Meet the unexpected, overlooked and forgotten models of art history.Who was Picasso's 'Weeping Woman'?Why was Grace Jones covered in graffiti?How did Francis Bacon meet the burglar who became his muse?The perception of the muse is that of a passive, powerless model, at the mercy of an influential and older artist. But is this trope a romanticised myth? Far from posing silently, muses have brought emotional support, intellectual energy, career-changing creativity and practical help to artists.Muse tells the true stories of the incredible muses who have inspired art history's masterpieces. From Leonardo da Vinci's studio to the covers of Vogue, art historian, critic and writer Ruth Millington uncovers the remarkable role of muses in some of art history's most well-known and significant works. Delving into the real-life relationships that models have held with the artists who immortalised them, it will expose the influential and active part they have played and deconstruct reductive stereotypes, reframing the muse as a momentous and empowered agent of art history.© Ruth Millington 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
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