American Venus: The Extraordinary Life of Audrey Munson, Model and Muse
"This young women  ought to  be ashamed  of herself," was the usual observation of early 20th-century moralists about Audrey Munson, arguably the most popular nude female model  of the Beaux-Arts school. In AMERICAN VENUS: The Extraordinary  Life of Audrey Munson, Model and Muse, Diane Rozas, a photographer, and Anita Bourne Gottenhrer, in her first book, have made an extraordinary effort o reclaim long-forgotten facts,  newspaper  clippings and  vintagephotographs of this  once celebrated life.  Indeed, so popular  was Munson that  at one time the Metropolitan Museum of Art housed 30 pieces of art based on her poses. Born in 1891 into the conservative world of upstate New York City.  In fewer than 10 years, she  was said to  have  posed for more civic  art commissionsthan  any  other   model.   By  1915,   Munson's  image increasingly turned up in private collections  as well.  As a magazine cover girl, she gained a national reputation and was invited to appear (naked, of course)   in films.   Since   she  had  no  acting  ability whatever,  this  second career  was  to  end badly:  her  first movie, however, publicized as morally depraved, was  one of the highest films of its day.  Munson left New  York and found  herself less and less in demand  as artistic tastes  changed.   At 39,  she was  committed to a mental institution, where  she spent the last  65 years of her life in virtual anonymity.  Munson died in  1996 at the  age of 105.  --New York Times