Muse (person)

Charlotte von Stein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's close friend and model for Iphigenia in Iphigenia in Tauris and Natalie in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years

A muse is a person who provides creative inspiration to a person of the arts (such as a writer, artist, composer, and so on) or sometimes in the sciences. In the course of history, these have usually (but not necessarily) been women. The term is derived from the Muses, ancient Greek goddesses of inspiration.

Human muses are woven throughout history. In modern times, specific people are called muses; as a rule, these are close friends and sometimes lovers or spouses, who inspire or affect the works of an artist due to their disposition, charisma, wisdom, sophistication, eroticism, intimate friendship, or other traits. Sometimes muses directly provide models for specific paintings and sculptures and for characters in literary works, but sometimes not, rather providing inspiration for the artist's work as a whole.

Muses are distinct from persons who may organize, teach, befriend, marry or support artists without providing inspiration for their works. Persons who serve only as models for paintings or sculptures are not necessarily muses (although they may be).

Modern muses who have left a noticeable mark on the history of culture include Varvara Bakhmeteva (for Mikhail Lermontov), Elizabeth Siddal (for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), Camille Claudel (for Auguste Rodin), Leila Waddell (for Aleister Crowley), Gala (for Salvador Dalí), Dora Maar (for Pablo Picasso), Aline Bernstein (for Thomas Wolfe), Yoko Ono (for John Lennon), Pattie Boyd (for Eric Clapton and George Harrison), Uma Thurman (for Quentin Tarantino), and many others. Muses are sometimes artists in their own right (as with Siddal, Claudel, Ono, Maar, and Thurman).

Further reading

• Tuttler, Adele, ed. (2016). The Muse: Psychoanalytic Explorations of Creative Inspiration. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317510840.
• Thrash, T. M.; Maruskin, L. A.; Cassidy, S.E.; Fryer, J.W.; Ryan, R. M. (2010). "Mediating between the muse and the masses: Inspiration and the actualization of creative ideas". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 98 (3): 469–487. doi:10.1037/a0017907. PMID 20175625. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
• Prose, Francine; Jakobeit, Brigitte; Höbel, Susanne (2004). Das Leben der Musen. Von Lou Andreas-Salomé bis Yoko Ono [The Lives of the Muses: From Lou Andreas-Salomé to Yoko Ono] (in German). Munich: Nagel & Kimche. ISBN 3-312-00336-9.