ABSTRACT
The conventional image of a male artist and his female muse usually involves a nubile young wife or mistress who inspires a middle-aged, but still passionate, creator. One thinks of Rubens and Hélène Fourment, Rembrandt and Hendrickje Stoffels, or Picasso and Marie-Thérèse Walter. Channeling lust into art, these painters immortalize every pucker and hollow of their beloved’s curvaceous flesh. Love and work seem as one. Unfortunately for Vincent van Gogh, a beautiful female muse, like so many other perquisites of a great artist’s life, eluded him. The closest he came to such a traditional muse was Sien Hoornik, the haggard prostitute with whom he lived in The Hague for nearly two years. Instead of a Het Pelskin or Le Rêve, the most memorable work this relationship produced was the pregnant, scrawny-limbed figure of Sien as the embodiment of Sorrow.
