Constance Quéniaux

Constance Adolphine Quéniaux (9 July 1832 – 7 April 1908) was a dancer and courtesan at the Paris Opera Ballet. She is the presumed model for Gustave Courbet's painting L'Origine du monde, in which a woman is seen explicitly displaying her vulva.

Life and career

Early years Born on 9 July 1832 at Saint-Quentin, Constance Adolphine Quéniaux was the daughter of Marie Catherine Quéniaux. Quéniaux's mother was unmarried at the time of her birth and she reportedly grew up in poverty.

At a young age, Quéniaux joined the ballet corps of the Paris Opera Ballet, performing minor roles in its repertoire. She rose to a secondary soloist position alongside :it:Claudina Cucchi, receiving acclaim. Quéniaux would combine her dance career with prostitution.

In 1859 Quéniaux had suffered from a knee injury that prevented her from continuing with her career in ballet, and by the age of 34, she had officially retired from the Opera and was captivating the favour of an Ottoman diplomat, Halil Şerif Pasha.

Quéniaux was the model for several works, including the Portrait de Mademoiselle Constance Quéniaux, de l'Académie Impériale de Musique (1867), by Jules-Émile Saintin.

Later life In the final years of Quéniaux's life, she became renowned for her philanthropy. She began to actively support the Orphelinat des Arts—an institution for orphaned or abandoned children of artists.

L'Origine du monde

Halil Şerif Pasha was a notable collector of arts. He commissioned Gustave Courbet to paint Quéniaux, whom he called his "lucky charm". It mentions “One does not paint the most delicate and the most sonorous interior of Miss Queniault (sic) of the Opera.” This combined with Quéniaux's bequest of Courbet's painting of camellias (associated with courtesans) strongly suggests that Constance Quéniaux was Courbet's model.