Friday, November 06, 2009

V. continued: the master, the artists, the muse and Montsalvat.

The Skipper family were arty folk who moved to the artist colony in 1934 and it was their eldest, Helen, who became Jorgensen's mistress.
Second daughter Sonia also developed her art and talents after early influences from the tonal school and the annual artists camp at San-Remo and the tutoring at Montsalvat. Sonia found a lover in Arthur Munday and she and her sister both had their first born within hours of each other.

It is said that Jorgensen's wife, Lily, turned from work in medicine to that of psychology and that she suffered from MS. Medical treatment or any weaknesses were frowned upon by the 'master' and she remained uncared for in her later years until friends intervened and she moved away to the city.
Whether this last information is reliable is hard to say. It is contained in a site with extensive good photos of Montsalvat here.

1 comment:

brattcat said...

An interesting a beautiful series on Montsalvat.