Audrey Munson

Audrey Munson (1891–1996) was an American artists’ model and silent-film actress. She posed for numerous public sculptures and starred in Inspiration and Purity.

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Manhattan Municipal Building: A New York City government building completed in 1914 and crowned by a statue of Civic Fame. Civic Fame, modeled by Munson, crowns the building and became one of her most visible sculptural likenesses.
Adolph Alexander Weinman: An American sculptor known for public monuments and architectural sculpture. Weinman sculpted Civic Fame, one of the public works for which Munson posed.
Artists’ model: A person who poses for artists as they make drawings, paintings, or sculptures. Munson’s career grew from posing for sculptors and painters in New York.
The American Venus: A popular nickname for Audrey Munson, whose modeling made her a widely recognized ideal of feminine beauty. The nickname shows how publicity turned Munson’s professional work into a marketable public identity.
Civic Fame: A gilded copper statue by Adolph Alexander Weinman atop Manhattan’s Municipal Building. Munson posed for this monumental figure, which linked her image to New York’s civic identity.
Henry Kirke Bush-Brown: An American sculptor whose works included statues at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. Bush-Brown modeled The Star Maiden on Munson.
Silent film: Motion pictures made before synchronized recorded dialogue became standard. Munson’s acting career took shape during the silent-film era.
Nude art: Art that depicts the unclothed human body, often using classical conventions to frame it as an artistic subject. Munson’s modeling and film appearances made the boundary between artistic nudity and public scandal central to her fame.
Inspiration (1915 film): A silent film starring Audrey Munson as a sculptor’s model, notable for its nude scenes. The film made Munson’s modeling persona its subject and tested censorship around nudity.
Daniel Chester French: An American sculptor best known for the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. French’s sculpture of Munson for the Manhattan Bridge approach became another prominent public likeness.