Nina Hamnett

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Amedeo Modigliani : Nina Hamnett, oil on canvas (1914)

Nina Hamnett (born February 14, 1890 in Tenby , † December 16, 1956 in London ) was a British painter , sculptor and writer . It was known as “La rein Bohème” in the early 20th century .

Life

Nina Hamnett studied at the Pelham Art School from 1906 to 1907 and then at the London School of Art until 1910. Before the outbreak of World War I , Hamnett traveled to France , where she studied art history at the Marie Vassilieffs Académie in Paris . She had her studio in the artists' estate La Ruche in the Montparnasse district . Within a very short time she made the acquaintance of the city's most famous artists, including Amedeo Modigliani , Jean Cocteau , Sergei Pavlovich Djagilew and Pablo Picasso . Through her eccentric life and her bisexuality , she became a well-known personality of the entire Parisian bohemian and a role model for many artists. After dancing naked on the table at Café de la Rotonde , Picasso called her La Pure Bohème .

On her return to England she taught at the Westminster Technical Institute from 1917 to 1918 . Hamnett separated from her Norwegian husband, the artist Kristian Roald, to live with the composer Ernest John Moeran . She later entered into a physical and professional liaison with Roger Fry , a member of the famous Bloomsbury Group , and worked in his artist workshop Omega Workshops, founded in 1913 .

In 1932 Nina Hamnett published her autobiography Laughing Torso , in which she described her life in France. The book became a top seller in the UK and the United States . In the same year she was sued for libel by the occultist Aleister Crowley for portraying him as a practitioner of black magic in her book . Not only did Crowley suffer defeat in court because the evidence presented by Nina Hamnett was overwhelming, but he also lost all of his fortune.

Nina Hamnett, who had abused alcohol for years , died on December 16, 1956 in London after falling out of the window of her apartment.

Portraits of Roger Fry (selection)

  • Woman on sofa , oil on canvas, around 1915

  • Nina Hamnett, oil on canvas (1917)

  • Nina Hamnett, oil on canvas (1917)

  • Nina Hamnett with guitar, oil on canvas (1917/18)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Omega Workshops
  2. ↑ Edith Sitwell: My eccentric life , Frankfurt am Main (1994) ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.physiologus.de
  3. ^ Nina Hamnett , oxfordindex.oup.com, accessed October 29, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Hamnett, Nina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nina Roald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter, sculptor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Tenby
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1956
Place of death London