- Isabel Rawsthorne
Isabel Rawsthorne (1912 – 1992) was a British artists' model and painter. She is better known as the subject of paintings and sculptures by such prominent artists as Picasso, Giacometti and Derain than for her work as a painter. She was romantically linked with many members of the artistic bohemian society in which she flourished, including Francis Bacon and
Georges Bataille , and was married thrice: to the journalistSefton Delmer , and to the composersConstant Lambert andAlan Rawsthorne .Life
She was born Isabel Nicholas in the
East End of London , the daughter of a master mariner, but raised inLiverpool , where she studied at the Liverpool School of Art. Her early works do not survive. In the early 1930s, sculptorJacob Epstein used her as a model, notably for his bronze bust "Isabel" (1933).Her first husband was
Sefton Delmer , a British journalist. They lived inParis , where she modeled for Giacometti and Picasso. The marriage had deteriorated by 1945.In 1947, Isabel married composer
Constant Lambert , for whose final work, the ballet "Tiresias" (created for theFestival of Britain ), she painted set scenery. During her marriage to Lambert, she was painting in a Neo-romantic style. Lambert died a few years later, in 1951.She married another composer,
Alan Rawsthorne , in 1952, the year after Lambert's death. Rawsthorne and Lambert had been drinking friends.Isabel then became a model for Francis Bacon, who was a noted homosexual, yet is quoted by "
Paris Match " as having said, "You know, I also made love to Isabel Rawsthorne, a very beautiful woman who was Derain's model andGeorges Bataille 's girlfriend." Bacon's most famous portrait of her is "Three Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne" (1966).According to
Norman Lebrecht , she "matched her husbands for drink, swore like anavvy and was a fine painter besides". She painted skeletons of birds, and later ballet dancers.References
* http://www.francis-bacon.cx/themes/isabel.html
* http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,11711,1233535,00.html
* http://www.musicalpointers.co.uk/reviews/liveevents/AlwynLambertRawsthorne.htm
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