| Audrey Munson | |
|---|---|
 Audrey Munson in Heedless Moths 1921 |
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| Born | Audrey Marie Munson June 8, 1891 New York City, New York, United States |
| Died | February 20, 1996 (aged 104) Ogdensburg, New York, United States |
Audrey Munson (June 8, 1891 – February 20, 1996) was an American model and actress, known variously as "Miss Manhattan," "the Exposition Girl," and "American Venus." She was the model or inspiration for more than 15 statues in New York City.[1]
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Biography
Audrey Marie Munson was born in Mexico, New York, near the city of Syracuse. Her parents, Edgar Munson and Katherine "Kittie" Mahaney, divorced when she was young and Audrey and her mother moved to New York City. In 1906, when Audrey was 15 years old, she was spotted in the street by photographer Ralph Draper, who in turn introduced her to his friend, sculptor Isidore Konti. Konti persuaded the young woman to model for him. For the next decade Munson became the model of choice for a host of sculptors and painters in New York City. By 1915 she was so well established that she was chosen by Alexander Stirling Calder as the model of choice for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition [PPIE] held that year. She posed for three quarters of the sculpture at that event as well as for numerous paintings and murals.
In 1916, probably as a result of her exposure in California at the PPIE, Munson moved to California and entered the movies. In all Munson starred in four silent films. The first of these, Inspiration, the story of a sculptor’s model, featured the first time that a woman appeared fully nude on film. The censors were reluctant to ban the film, fearing they would also have to ban Renaissance art. The films were a box office success. Reviews of the films, however, were very polarized,[citation needed] and only a single print of one film, Purity, has survived.
1919 found Munson back in New York, living with her mother in a boarding house owned by Dr. Walter Wilkins. Wilkins fell in love with her, murdering his wife, Julia, so he could be available for marriage.[1] Although Munson and her mother had left New York prior to the murder, the police still wished to question them, resulting in a nationwide hunt for them. They were finally questioned in Toronto, Canada, where they testified that they had moved out because Mrs. Wilkins had requested it. This satisfied the police, but the negative publicity generated by the case effectively ended Munson’s career as a model and actress. Wilkins was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the electric chair. He hanged himself in his prison cell before the sentence could be carried out.
By 1920 Munson, unable to find work anywhere, returned with her mother to the town of Mexico and worked for a[clarification needed] while selling kitchen utensils door to door.[citation needed] On May 27, 1922 in Mexico, she swallowed a solution of bichloride of mercury to take her own life.[2] That was the start of her mental illness and paranoia. In 1931 a judge ordered the 39-year-old Munson into a psychiatric facility for treatment. She was to remain there for the next 65 years, until her death in 1996 at the age of 104.[1]
Sculpture for which Audrey Munson posed
- Priestess of Culture [PPIE] now in Fine art Museum of SF 1914
- Earth [PPIE, - Court of Universe] 1915
- PPIE medal 1915
- Figure on doors of the Greenhut & John W Gates Mausoleums
- Pomona or Abundance, Pulitzer Fountain in Grand Army Plaza, NYC 1915[3]
- Venus de Milo (Venus with arms) for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
- Star Maiden [PPIE-Court of the Universe] now in Oakland Museum 1915
- Eastern Hemisphere - Fountain of Energy [PPIE] 1915
- Melvin Brothers Memorial, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord MA 1908
- Commerce and Jurisprudence, Federal Building, Cleveland Ohio, 1910
- Genius of Creation and Eve [PPIE] plaster now at Chesterwood, MA 1915
- Brooklyn and Manhattan, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NYC
- Memory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
- Mourning Victory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
- Spirit of Life - Indiana Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, 1914 - Newark Art Museum, Newark NJ
- Evangeline, Longfellow Memorial, Cambridge MA 1912
- Trask Memorial, Saratoga Springs, NY 1915
- Wisconsin, figure on top of Wisconsin State Capitol dome 1912
- Torch Bearer [PPIE] 1915
- Muse and Pan [PPIE] 1915
- Maidenhood Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, Brookgreen Gardens, SC
- Frick Collection Building. A pediment, NYC, 1913
- Rain [PPIE] 1915
- Harvest [PPIE] 1915
- Figures on tablet outside the Little Theatre
- Spirit of Commerce, Manhattan Bridge, NYC
- Mother and Child- private collection of Richard & Lydia Kaeyer
- Three Muses, - Hudson River Museum
- Three Graces – lobby of the Hotel Astor, NYC
- Pomona – Konti finished the work after Karl Bitter was killed
- Figure within the Column of Progress [PPIE] 1915
- Widowhood
- Genius of Immortality Hudson River Museum 1911
- Fountain of Ceres [PPIE-Court of Four Seasons] 1915
- Consecration [PPIE] now in Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT 1915
- Ida Straus and Isidor Straus Memorial, Straus Park, Manhattan, NYC
- Niche figure, New York Public Library, NYC
Allen Newman
- Music of the Waters Fountain, Riverside Drive NYC
- Alone [PPIE] 1915
- Maine Memorial, Central Park, NYC – figure on top and figure at base
- Duty and Sacrifice - Firemen’s Memorial, NYC 1913
- Fountain of Spring [PPIE] 1915
- South Carolina Women’s Monument, Columbia South Carolina 1911
- Descending Night – Various museums and [PPIE-Fountain of Setting Sun]
- Civic Fame, figure on top of the Municipal Building, MMW
- US dime & half-dollar 1916
- Day and Night figures from Penn Station MMW, 1906
Albert G. Wenzel
- Madam Butterfly
- Figure over the proscenium in the New Amsterdam Theater, NYC 1903[4]
- The Fountain of El Dorado [PPIE] 1915
Others sculptures at PPIE
- Fountain of Ceres, Court of Four Seasons
- Fountain of Rising Sun, Court of Universe
- Pedestal & Friezes, Columns of Human Progress
- Air, Court of Universe
- Spirit of Creation, Court of Universe
- Nature, Feast of Sacrifice, Court of Four Seasons
- Pylon Groups, Festival Hall
- Conception, Wonderment, and Contemplation, Palace of the Fine Arts
 Pacific |
 Fountain of Flowers |
 Nations of the West |
 Audrey Munson in Inspiration, 1915 |
 Audrey Munson in Purity 1916 |
Filmography
- Inspiration [1915] the first known movie in which a woman removed all her clothes
- Purity [1916]
- Girl O’Dreams [1917]
- Heedless Moths [1921]
All of her movies were thought to be lost, but a copy of Purity was recovered from an archive in France in 2004.
Further reading
- Kvaran & Lockley, Architectural Sculpture of America unpublished manuscript
- Mullgardt, Louis Christian, The Architecture and Landscape Gardening of the Exposition - A Pictorial Survey of the Most Beautiful of the Compositions of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition Paul Elder and Company, San Francisco 1915
- Neuhaus, Eugen, The Art of the Exposition - Personal Impressions of the Architecture, Sculpture, Mural Decorations, Color Scheme & Other Aestetic Aspects of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Paul Elder and Company, San Francisco 1915
- New York Times, Rescuing a Heroine From the Clutches of Obscurity, April 14, 1996, Page CY5.
- New York Times, Famed Artist's Model Bared All For Playwright, June 16, 1996, Page CY15.
- Popik, Barry, "Audrey Munson (New York’s “Civic Fame” and “Miss Manhattan,”" 5 July 2004
- Rozas, Diane & Anita Bourne Gottehrer, American Venus, Balcony Press, Los Angeles, 1999
- Wodehouse, P.G., Bring on the girls!: the improbable story of our life in musical comedy, with pictures to prove it, Herbert Jenkins, London, 1954
Images
The preceding images are all taken from:
- The Architecture and Landscape Gardening of the Exposition - A Pictorial Survey of the Most Beautiful of the Compositions of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by Louis Christian Mullgardt
- The Art of the Exposition - Personal Impressions of the Architecture, Sculpture, Mural Decorations, Color Scheme & Other Aesthetic Aspects of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by Eugen Neuhau
These books were both published by Paul Elder and Company, San Francisco 1915.
References
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (June 2008) |
- ^ a b c Knafo, Saki (December 9, 2007). "The Girl Beneath the Gilding". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/nyregion/thecity/09muns.html. Retrieved 2009-02-04. "Ms. Munson was eventually taken to the St. Lawrence State Hospital for the Insane, in nearby Ogdensburg, where she lived from her 40th birthday, on June 8, 1931, until her death in 1996 at age 105 [sic]."
- ^ "Model Who Attempted Suicide by Poison Will Recover. Her Physician Says. Says Powerful Influences Persecute Her. Silent About a Telegram Believed From Fiance.". New York Times. May 29, 1922. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D0DE3DE1231EF33A2575AC2A9639C946395D6CF. Retrieved 2009-02-04. "Audrey Munson, famed as an artist's model also known as a motion picture actress, who attempted to end her life by swallowing a solution of bichloride of mercury at her home in Mexico, Oswego County, yesterday afternoon, was today..."
- ^ The sculpture was finished by Konti after Bitter’s untimely death.
- ^ The painter Robert Blum and the sculptor Albert Wenzel were partners in a decorating firm (Christopher Gray, "Streetscapes: 88 and 90 Grove Street" The New York Times, 2 August 1998.
External links
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