Muse from the Monument to Whistler

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This is a monumental representation of the muse from Whistler's monument. In 1903, Rodin became president of the International Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers in London after its founder, American painter James McNeil Whistler, passed away. Two years later, he was commissioned to create a memorial for Whistler, which he achieved by casting an ancient Roman funerary altar from his collection and balancing it on the raised knee of a muse. His model was the painter Gwen John, with whom he had a romantic relationship at that time. The folds of her skirt evoke the iconic statue of the Venus de Milo, which Rodin greatly admired.