French art model (c. 1820–1863)
Christine Roux (c. 1820 - December 3, 1863) was a French courtesan, artist's model and actress in the 19th century.
Early life and career.
Christine Roux was born around 1820 in Lyon, France. She later moved with her mother to Paris where she worked as a courtesan.
Literary connections.
Roux is believed to have been the inspiration for the character Musette in Henri Murger's 1851 novel Scènes de la vie de bohème, which was adapted into the 1896 opera La Bohème by Puccini. Writer Jules Champfleury, who had a brief relationship with Roux, is also said to have based the character Mariette in his 1853 work Les Aventures de Mademoiselle Mariette on her.
Modeling Career Roux posed as an artist's model for the famous French photographer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar. One of his photographs from around 1855 titled Mariette depicts Roux standing nude covering her face and is considered groundbreaking for their time and among the earliest nude photographs ever made. Another Nadar photo called Musette may show Roux seated.
Art historian Helmut Gernsheim claimed Nadar's nude photo of Roux inspired the female figure in Ingres' 1856 painting La Source, alleging Ingres sent Roux to Nadar for studies that year. However, other sources dispute this timeline, stating La Source was conceived much earlier around 1820 and based on Ingres' 1848 Venus Anadyomene, with the model potentially being Ingres' concierge's daughter.
The pose in Nadar's Roux photo bears similarity to the nude Phryne in Jean-Léon Gérôme's 1861 painting Phryne before the Areopagus. Some sources suggest Roux may have previously modeled for Gérôme, providing the face of the Greek girl in his 1846 work The Cockfight.
Death.
In 1863, Christine Roux died in the shipwreck of the steamship Atlas headed to Algiers.
Legacy.
In the Forest of Fontainebleau near Mare aux Fées, Claude-François Denecourt nicknamed a hornbeam tree "Musette" as a tribute to Murger's literary character based on Roux. Writer Alexandre Schanne described her as "beautiful, positively beautiful."
References.
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