Famous muses


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One of the great mysteries artists leave behind when they die is the source of their inspiration. Sometimes it's obvious: in the case of French Impressionist Claude Monet, it was his surroundings - the water garden at Giverny or his house at Argenteuil. Pablo Picasso's cubism was fired by war and politics. But often the most famous artists required further inspiration than simply the world around them to arouse their creativity. They needed a muse.

This week it was revealed that the artist and sculptor Alberto Giacometti - whose L'Homme Que Marche II sold for a record-breaking £65m (Dh380) earlier this year - had such a woman during the last years of his life in the mid-1960s. She was rather famous, too - the drawings recently uncovered in the Giacometti archive weren't of some hitherto unknown woman, but Christine Keeler. Photographs of the model at the heart of the Profumo affair, which threatened to bring down the British establishment in 1963, had appeared in a French newspaper, and Giacometti had begun sketching her in the margins.

Giacometti was, perhaps, a little ahead of his time. He and Keeler never actually met - in a sense, she was his virtual inspiration. But the idea is the same; a muse should never be a paid model or a subject. There was much excitement when Lucian Freud's famous Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for £17.2m in 2008 - but the model Sue Tilley wasn't really his muse in the truest sense of the word. She posed for him for £20 a day for nine months. That's a job, not a meeting of creative minds.

For the real muse of 20th-century art, look no further than Elena Ivanova Diakonova - more famously known as Gala. There was something in this Russian emigre that captured the imaginations (and hearts) of artists - particularly the surrealists. Her first marriage to Paul Eluard provoked many of his finest love poems - and when the relationship ended (Gala running off with Salvador Dali) he admitted that he had, in some ways, "invented" her in his mind. It was a similar story for Dali, with whom she lived until her death in 1982. Gala featured in many of his most famous works, and it's no surprise that after she died Dali was not only creatively spent, but emotionally, too.

Still, the role of a muse is to help channel and tease out the artist's creative energy rather than be an unquestioning girlfriend. Look back through the history of art, and sometimes this made this key relationship complicated.

Gustav Klimt's relationship with Emilie Flöge was puzzling to say the least. They lived together for most of her life, but he had his 14 children with other women. Klimt's representations of his companion were as a bejewelled icon, but never as a siren or femme fatale. She looked elegant, venerated and very much the muse - as is obvious in one of Klimt's most famous works, The Kiss.

The idea of the muse is not exclusive to art, of course. When The Beatles were making a name for themselves in the clubs of 1960s Hamburg, it was a certain Astrid Kirchherr - the girlfriend of "fifth Beatle" Stuart Sutcliffe - who encouraged them to comb their hair forward into a moptop. Kirchherr took the stylised black-and-white photographs around the German port city that immediately made them a cool band rather than just a gang of Liverpool mates. Was she a muse, or just someone well practised in PR? The Beatles were certainly taken in - Cynthia Powell, John Lennon's girlfriend back home in England, was insanely jealous of letters full of "Astrid said this, Astrid did that".

Perhaps, though, it shouldn't be surprising that artists need a special someone to bounce ideas off. The trappings of their life - the fame, the glory, the critical adulation - are all very well. But the actual process of dreaming up and then creating art is almost always a rather dull and lonely existence, full of self-doubt. Maybe, in absent-mindedly doodling images of Christine Keeler on his newspaper, Giacometti was actually willing himself a companion.

Cinco in numbers

Dh3.7 million

The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown

46

The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.

1,000

The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]

50

How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday

3,000

The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

1.1 million

The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.

The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo

The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
​​​​​​​Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km

The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet

Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465

Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder

Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km

Pathaan
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Volvo ES90 Specs

Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)

Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp

Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm

On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region

Price: Exact regional pricing TBA

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)

SPECS

Mini John Cooper Works Clubman and Mini John Cooper Works Countryman

Engine: two-litre 4-cylinder turbo

Transmission: nine-speed automatic

Power: 306hp

Torque: 450Nm

Price: JCW Clubman, Dh220,500; JCW Countryman, Dh225,500

Scores:

Day 4

England 290 & 346
Sri Lanka 336 & 226-7 (target 301)

Sri Lanka require another 75 runs with three wickets remaining

MATCH INFO

Southampton 0
Manchester City 1
(Sterling 16')

Man of the match: Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo

Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic

Power: 242bhp

Torque: 370Nm

Price: Dh136,814

The specs

Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors

Transmission: two-speed

Power: 671hp

Torque: 849Nm

Range: 456km

Price: from Dh437,900 

On sale: now

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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion

The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".

The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.

He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.

"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.

As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.

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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

The Matrix Resurrections

Director: Lana Wachowski

Stars:  Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick 

Rating:****

Scores

Bournemouth 0-4 Liverpool
Arsenal 1-0 Huddersfield Town
Burnley 1-0 Brighton
Manchester United 4-1 Fulham
West Ham 3-2 Crystal Palace

Saturday fixtures:
Chelsea v Manchester City, 9.30pm (UAE)
Leicester City v Tottenham Hotspur, 11.45pm (UAE)

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FINAL SCORES

Fujairah 130 for 8 in 20 overs

(Sandy Sandeep 29, Hamdan Tahir 26 no, Umair Ali 2-15)

Sharjah 131 for 8 in 19.3 overs

(Kashif Daud 51, Umair Ali 20, Rohan Mustafa 2-17, Sabir Rao 2-26)

Jetour T1 specs

Engine: 2-litre turbocharged

Power: 254hp

Torque: 390Nm

Price: From Dh126,000

Available: Now

Tonight's Chat on The National

Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.

Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.

Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.

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Andor
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Apple%20Mac%20through%20the%20years
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The Saga Continues

Wu-Tang Clan

(36 Chambers / Entertainment One)

The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo

Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm

Torque: 500Nm from 1,900-5,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.5L/100km

Price: from Dh285,000

On sale: from January 2022 

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The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat