Muse Bouche

I need a muse. Definitely – especially after reading The 20th-Century Muse by Annette and Luc Vezin. I want my Helen Hessel, my Gena Rowlands, my Jane Birkin, my Georgia O’Keeffe, my Nico.

Defined by the venerable OED:

A person (often a female lover) or thing regarded as the source of an artist’s inspiration; the presiding spirit or force behind any person or creative act.

Historical usage:

1592 Arden of Feversham I. 258 P 6, I, Loue is the Painters Muse, That makes him frame a speaking countenaunce.

1785 R. BURNS Sc. Drink ii, O thou, my Muse! guid, auld Scotch Drink!

1807 J. BARLOW Columbiad I. 22 Almighty Freedom!.. I bend no suppliant knee, Invoke no miracle, no Muse but thee.

1849 H. D. THOREAU Week Concord & Merrimack Rivers 3 Though now thou climbest loftier mounts, And fairer rivers dost ascend, Be thou my Muse, my Brother.

1877 W. F. BARRY New Antigone II. xxii. 170 ‘Don’t you feel inspired when I am here to be your muse of painting?’ she asked with her bewitching smile.

1878 H. JAMES Watch & Ward iii. 40 The muse of observation for him was the little girl at home… It was for her sake that he collected impressions and laid up treasure. a1909 A. ANDERSON To Eng. Girl in Later Poems (1912) 280 My muse must be thy blooming youth.

1954 C. BEATON Glass of Fashion viii. 156 As a muse, she has been indirectly responsible for much of her husband’s best work; but she is equally creative in her own right.

1994 Time 4 July 68/1 He was..married to one of the greediest harpies in Europe: Gala, who made him the indentured servant of his lost talent even as he treated her as his muse.