Named models posing for Courbet's "the creation of the world"
ARTinvestment.RU   27 сентября 2018

One of the most daring paintings of the XIX century show the body in Paris of the ballerina Constance Kenya — mistress Ottoman diplomat, a customer of the canvas. This slip Alexandre Dumas in a letter to George sand

Even by modern standards Gustave Courbet and his client — Ottoman diplomat Khalil-бея can be considered a desperate trolls. "The creation" by-прежнему remains a bogey for the "moralists" and "banner" for their opponents. In our days, before the canvas in the musée d'orsay organized actions artist and feminist. For the census this picture get banned accounts chaste our Facebook. Anyway every time is her show, so conversations will be on all day. And this is now. And imagine that was in 1866, when it was written!

However the owner would not look for adventure on his head and to publicly display the painting. Saw her quite a lot of people of the world, but not everyone. The General public saw this thing only in the late 1980-х years, and since the mid 1990-х she walked in one of the masterpieces of the musée d'orsay.

And immediately began the guessing.

the model in the picture is not seen. Courbet himself nobly no instructions on this subject have left. And the secrets people keep able. Whispering, some even knew the truth, but direct evidence either in the press, and never left. For years, art historians could only guess (why-то) what kind of woman dared to pose for the artist. Among the main versions considered candidates, Irish model Joanna Hiffernan — mistress Courbet and James McNeill Whistler (his picture "restored" Mr. Bean). Probably because it was considered whether, despite the obvious absurdity: Hiffernan was a redhead.

But recently art historians were attacked on the trail. In a letter to Dumas-сына addressed to the writer George sand, found a clear allusion to Constance Kenya. In 1866 she was 34, she recently retired from the ballet troupe of the Paris Opera and became the mistress of a diplomat Khalil Sheriff Pasha, known as Khalil-бей. Incidentally, he at one time worked as a messenger in St.-Петербурге. Khalil-бей gathered a remarkable collection of erotic art. His collection was the"Algerian women" by eugène Delacroix (harem scene, however chaste), "Turkish bath" by Ingres and other masterpieces that are now part of the exhibition leading French museums. After meeting with the diplomat Constance Kenya became a famous lady of light, engaged in charity and left a generally good memory.

Which will now give the history of art, establishing her personality — is, of course, another mystery. How and why did not immediately guessed. Remember what the woman at the time loved customer, — where much easier. And the picture is good. To have time to watch, yet again, not banned.

Vladimir Bogdanov, AI

Sources: independent.co.uk, news.artnet.com