Recorded sessions – 90 minutes each
Artists’ relationships with their models are fascinating.
Whether they are painting their lovers, surrogate daughters, or clients they don’t much like, what was the process behind some of their collaborations? How much input did models have? And what did the models themselves have to say about the experience?
“You have given me a new dimension to appreciating art.”
Is there a more famous model than Whistler’s mother? But she was only part of his story. There was also Joanna Hiffernan, the lover he tried to hide from her
Matisse famously noted that he would no more sleep with a model than he would eat a still life. His paid models were like surrogate daughters and his own family also modelled for him.
The connection between Klimt and his models varied from friends and rumoured love interests like Adele Bloch‐Bauer and Emilie Flöge to patrons like Szerena Lederer.
From his early paintings of his wife Kitty Garman to his daughter Anne and his assistant David Dawson, modelling for Freud was always intense and physically strenuous.
Portuguese painter Paula Rego will have a long overdue retrospective at the Tate in 2021. Discover how Lila Nunes who has been modelling for her for over thirty years has contributed to some of Rego’s most famous works.