American Venus

Audrey Munson, who posed for Daniel Chester French's Memory, above, was the acknowledged "Queen of the Artists' Studios" of the Beaux Arts period.

She was the model for the Walking Liberty half-dollar and the Mercury dime, for the figure of Civic Fame atop the Manhattan Municipal Building, for the statues and murals of the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair, and for dozens more civic monuments. At one time, 30 pieces of art based on her poses were housed at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

At 39 she was confined to a mental institution, where she spent the last 65 years of her life in virtual anonymity, until her death in 1996 at the age of 105.

"Audrey Munson should be on a postage stamp," Barry Popik writes at The Big Apple.

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Some Audrey Munson links:

A tribute blog;

A review of the biography American Venus;

Memory, by Daniel Chester French;

Mourning Victory, Daniel Chester French

Spirit of Life, by Daniel Chester French;

"The Star Maiden";

A panoramic exhibit of newspaper clips and images by Andrea Geyer

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From her Wikipedia entry:

P.G. Wodehouse provided a humorous anecdote about Audrey Munson. In his memoir he wrote that he was once working alone in an apartment which had been vacated by a sculptor. His wife told him to expect a woman who would redo the couch. Audrey knocked and asked if there was any work for her. Wodehouse responded, yes, and How much would it be altogether? You want the altogether?" she replied and walked into a bedroom. She emerged in an advanced form of nudity, which the Englishman considered pretty eccentric even for a lady decorator.