Better known as Kiki de Montparnasse (or the Queen of Montparnasse) but born as Alice Ernestine Prin (1901 – 29 1953). She was a French artist’s model, literary muse, nightclub singer, actress, memoirist, and painter. She flourished in, and helped define, the liberated culture of Paris in the 1920s.

Without knowing it I already have shared some photos of her, in the collection of Julian Mandel. 

Adopting a single name, “Kiki”, she became a fixture in the Montparnasse social scene and a popular artist’s model, posing for dozens of artists. Her companion for most of the 1920s was Man Ray, who made hundreds of portraits of her. She can be considered his muse at this time, she is the subject of some of his best-known images, including the notable surrealist image Le violon d’Ingres and Noire et blanche. Besides posing she also appeared in some movies:  Walking on Air (1946), Le lion des Mogols (1924) and Le capitaine jaune (1930).

She died on April 29, 1953 in Sanary-sur-Mer, Var, France.

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