Dora

Here's a photo of the terrace outside the Cafe du Dome taken by André Kertész in 1925.

Identified in Kiki's Paris, Artists and Lovers 1900-1930 are, from left to right are Marie Vassilieff, Cubist painter; Erno Goldfinger, Hungarian architect (the inspiration for Auric, maybe? "Auric Goldfinger - sounds like a French nail varnish"); an unknown woman: Lajos Tihanyi, the deaf Hungarian painter; and Dora, friend of photographer Berenice Abbott.

Could this Dora be a very young Dora Maar? I do see a resemblance.

Whether she was Picasso's muse or not, I liked the look of Dora very much and with green and yellow paint in hand she became the first of my Montparnasse ladies. She is still the favourite of my husband and son.

Kiki

This painting of mine is based on the Man Ray photo of Kiki de Montparnasse, Parisian muse, model and general gal about town. She helped define the liberated culture of Paris in the 20's.

A fixture of Montparnasse's social scene, Kiki was a popular artists' model posing for Soutine, Foujita, Francis Picabia, Jean Cocteau and Alexander Calder to name a few. She was the companion of Man Ray who created many well-known images of her. (think "cello")

On my other blog, The Clever Pup, I refer to the book Kiki's Paris, Artists and Lovers 1900-1930 as my "Desert Island" book. The book is a bible; a veritable encylopedia of who was active in Montparnasse in the 20's. Picasso, the Steins, Matisse, Modigliani and Hemingway were all within Kiki's orbit. Published in 1989, biographers Billy Klüver and Julie Martin called Kiki "one of the century's first truly independent women."

In my rendition of Kiki I simplied the details and of course added some colours. I could imagine her in burgundies and golds. I corrected her wardrobe malfunction.

This is one of the images I'm including on my note cards.