During the Roaring Twenties, everyone gathered around exhibitions and crazy evenings: Baroness of Oettingen’s, the black ball with Youki and especially with Kiki, the party queen.

This pretty volcanic brunette, with a dazzling smile, was actually called Alice Prin. Her beauty and kindness made her the darling of penniless artists. She had started singing on the terrace of the Rotonde and in a fashionable club, the Jockey.

Many painters took her as a model: Modigliani, Soutine, Picasso, Foujita, Derain… Among all his lovers, Man Ray, the American photographer filmmaker immortalized her on film in a short film from 1928, called “the starfish”. based on a poem by Robert Desnos.
« l?étoile de mer » d?après un poéme de Robert Desnos.

People came from afar to see and hear her, her photo was on the front page of magazines, she had everything: money, jewelry, furs, cars. When the Second World War broke out, Kiki de Montparnasse saw the end of her glory, then the tragedy of decrepitude. She fell into misery, going from one cafe to another, from table to table, to do the lines of the hand. Alcoholic and drug addicted, she died in 1953, taking with her the memory of the immense wealth and past glory of Montparnasse. Only Foujita attended his burial in the cemetery of Thiais.

Source: L?Histoire en ligne – Le quartier Montparnasse.