#hamnett

[pazzesco]

Queen of Bohemia

Amedeo Modigliani -Jeune Femme (Nina Hamnett) - 1917

Roger Fry - Nina Hamnett avec une guitare - 1917

Nina Hamnett (1890–1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors’ chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia. Flamboyantly unconventional, and openly bisexual, Hamnett once danced nude on a Montparnasse café table just for the “hell of it”. She drank heavily, was sexually promiscuous, and kept numerous lovers and close associations within the artistic community. Very quickly, she became a well-known bohemian personality throughout Paris and modelled for many artists. She went on to have a love affair with Brzeska, and later with Amedeo Modigliani and Roger Fry.

Amedeo Modigliani - Woman with Red Hair (Nina Hamnett) - 1917

Nina Hamnett - Self Portrait - 1913

British painter, designer, and illustrator, famous more for her flamboyant bohemian life than for her work. She was born in Tenby, Wales, the daughter of an army officer, and studied at various art schools in Dublin, London, and finally Paris. On her first night there she met the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani. He introduced her to Picasso, Serge Dighilev, and Jean Cocteau, and she went to live at the famous artist’s residence of La Ruche which housed many other Bohemian artists and modernist writers. It was there that she met the Norwegian artist Roald Kristian (also known as Edgar de Bergen), whom she married in 1914. She seems to have been relieved when he was deported as an unregistered alien during the First World War; they never saw one another again.

Like other women at the time reveling in a newfound independence, she had her hair cut short in a ‘crophead’ style (what we would now call a basin cut) and she wore eccentric clothing:

"I wore in the daytime a clergyman’s hat, a check coat, and a skirt with red facings … white stockings and men’s dancing pumps and was stared at in the Tottenham Court Road. One had to do something to celebrate one’s freedom and escape from home."

Roger Fry - Nina Hamnett - 1917

Nina Hamnett - "Rupert Doone" - Dancer - 1922

Nina Hamnett - "Dolores" - 1931

From 1913 to 1919 Hamnett worked for Roger Fry's Omega Workshops; Fry (with whom she had a love affair) painted several portraits of her. In the 1920s, she spent much of her time in Paris, where once again she knew many leading figures of the avant-garde, including Jean Cocteau and the composers Satie and Stravinsky.

During the 1920s (and for the rest of her life) she made the area in central London known as Fitzrovia her home and stamping ground. This new locale for arty-Bohemia was centred on the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street which she frequented along with fellow Welsh artists Augustus John and Dylan Thomas, making occasional excursions across Oxford Street to the Gargoyle Club in Soho.

Nina Hamnett - Illustrated Osbert Sitwell's "The People's Album of London Statues" - 1927

However, she often returned to London for exhibitions of her work, which included portraits, landscapes, interiors, and figure compositions (notably café scenes) in a robust style drawing on various modern influences. In addition to paintings, she made book illustrations (spontaneous pen-and-ink drawings), notably for Osbert Sitwell's The People's Album of London Statues (1928). From the 1930s the quality of her work declined, partly because of the influence of alcohol.

In 1932 she published a volume of memoirs entitled Laughing Torso, which was a best-seller in both the UK and the USA. Following its publication she was sued by Aleister Crowley, whom she had accused of practicing black magic. The ensuing trial caused a sensation which helped sales of the book, and Crowley lost his case.

Hamnett enjoying herself with some new friends

Her success in this instance only fuelled her downward spiral, and she spent the last three decades of her life propping up the bar of the Fitzroy trading anecdotes of her glory years for free drinks. She took little interest in personal hygiene, was incontinent in public, and vomited into her handbag.

Her ending was as spectacular as had been her previous life. Drunk one night she either fell or jumped from the window of her flat and was impaled on the railing spikes below.

#art #Nina Hamnett #Laughing Torso #Osbert Sitwell #artist #Queen of Bohemia #amedeo modigliani #paintings #drawings #roger fry #aleister crowley #picasso #hamnett #illustrations #modigliani

[a-state-of-bliss]

Susan Holmes @ Katherine Hamnett Spr/Sum 1991

#fashion #runway #susan holmes #katherine hamnett

[theoriginalsupermodels]

Katharine Hamnett - Spring 1994 RTW

#fashion #fashion show #katharine hamnett #spring 1994 rtw #1994 #khspring1994rtw #tyra banks

[teenagedirtstache]

#arena magazine #norman watson #david bradshaw #jean paul gaultier #1991 #90s #katharine hamnett

[fyeahtimwalker]

Encyclopedia Britanicca by Tim Walker for Vogue UK, December 2023

Olivia Colman, Jodie Comer, Eddie Izzard, Kristen McMenamy & Eddy Earl, Katharine Hamnett, Kae Tempest, Vanessa Redgrave, Cecilia & Lucas Chancellor, and Isaac Julien.

Styled by Edward Enninful.

#tim walker #vogue uk #british vogue #editorial #portrait photography #vogue #british photographer #edward enninful #Olivia Colman #Jodie Comer #Eddie Izzard #Kristen McMenamy #Eddy Earl #Katharine Hamnett #Kae Tempest #Vanessa Redgrave #Cecilia Chancellor #Lucas Chancellor #Isaac Julien #2023 #december 2023 #british actresses #british actors #poet #comedian

[fashiontimeless]

Maayan Keret for Katharine Hamnett, 1994

#fashion #supermodel #1990s #1990s fashion #90s fashion #90s #vintage fashion #90s supermodel #1990s style #90s style #runway fashion #runway #runway show #fashion show #katherine hamnett #maayan keret

[venusimleder]

Katharine Hamnett, 90s.

Ph. Terry Richardson

#katharine hamnett #90s #fashion photography #ad campaign #terry richardson

[frumpydress]

#sibyl buck #katharine hamnett #runway #90s #1994 #that hair! #camera flash

[srirachamami]

#Naomi Campbell #Katherine Hamnett S/S 2004 RTW

[dondalsy]

i can not take d’artagnan x milady seriously i’m sorry i dont care abt the “eroticism” or the “sexual fixation” thats a golden retriever boyfriend and the most beautiful woman in the entire world, she would squash him like a bug!!!!

#the three musketeers #alexandre dumas #d’artagnan #milady de winter #brian hamnett i am under your bed #musketeers #my posts

[karmiculture]

kristen mcmenamy in the 1994 katharine hamnett campaign x

#source linked #kristen mcmenamy #1994 #katharine hamnett #dazed is the loml

[page-28]

This happy

Brenda Schad for Katherine Hamnett

#brenda schad #katherine hamnett #gfc

[forcedfemme-me]

Meghan Douglas by Oliviero Toscani for ELLE Italia - Katharine Hamnett leather jacket

#meghan douglas #leather #leather jacket #katharine hamnett #black leather #studded leather

[theoriginalsupermodels]

Katherine Hamnett - Spring 1992 RTW

#fashion #fashion show #katherine hamnett #spring 1992 rtw #1992 #khfall1992rtw

[teenagedirtstache]

#per lui #juergen teller #moschino #katharine hamnett #1989 #80s

[visual-sandwich]

Nina Hamnett, Portrait de Torahiko Khori, date inconnue, huile sur toile, 61 x 50,8 cm

#Nina Hamnett #art #painting #20th century #portrait