Alice Prin. You know her, yes? Ernest Hemingway once described he

r as “a woman who was never a lady at any time.” Like many of the Parisian belle fleurs of this era, she was born into miserable poverty and was raised in the streets. Alice began posing nude for a sculptor at the age of 14. This didn’t go over too well with her mother, who kicked her out. Homeless, she slept behind Gare Montparnasse, and found meager work in the area cafes. There, she met the artists who would immortalize her in paintings, photos and motion pictures.

Brassaï, Kiki de Montparnasse, Thérèse Treize de Caro et Lily – 1932

Maybe you know her by her other titles: Kiki de Montparnasse, or simply as the Queen of Montparnasse? Fans of Man Ray will recognize her in Violon d’Ingres, but she was so much more than an artist’s model! Born Alice Ernestine Prin (born October 1901), she helped to define early 1920s Parisian culture and was a muse to many Surrealist and Dada artists, and an artist and performer in her own right.

Writing this post was very exciting for me, for, while I have studied the following photographs and paintings for years, I had no knowledge that they were all of the same woman.

Gossip followed Kiki everywhere, including the legend that she had no pubic hair, or that she could only grow it when in love, or that she shaved it off and chalked it on again when posing for artists. - Daniel Stedman on Kiki de Montparnasse

Man Ray

and Alice Prin fell in love and were companions for most of the 1920s. Alice appears in many of his most famous photographs. Her beautiful proportions and cupid’s bow lips are featured in the Noire/Blanche series with the African masks. Man Ray was instrumental in “sculpting” her image, and would instruct her to shave off her eyebrows so that he might paint them on.

Despite their intense connection, Kiki ultimately went too far for Man Ray. When a cafe-owner in Nice called her a whore, she got into a fight, and was thrown into jail: Man Ray’s lawyer could only secure her release by producing a doctor’s certificate stating that she had a nervous disorder. Soon afterwards, Man Ray left Kiki for his photographic protege, Lee Miller. He broke the news to Kiki at one of their regular cafe haunts, and was forced to duck under a table while she hurled plates at his head. – Anna Davis, The Guardian.

Kiki in a video by Man Ray:

Kiki also owned her own night club cabaret (Chez Kiki), where she would sing and dance. Rumor has it, often sans culottes!!

Painting by by Gustaw Gwozdecki, c.1920:

by Moise Kisling, 1922:
by Pablo Gargallo, bronze, 1928:
by Maurice Medjinsky, 1921:

Julian Mandel, Girl with vase:

As a lasting legacy of sorts, Kiki De Montparnasse is a luxury lingerie and sex boutique. Specializing in extravagant lace underthings and opulent sexual accoutrements ($2,500 pearl restraints, anyone?), be sure to feast your eyes on an array of tantalizing underthings that our own Alice might have flashed during one of her dancing numbers.