Emma Dupont

Emma Dupont (fl. 1876–1890) was a French model, known for posing for paintings and sculptures for various 19th-century artists, mainly Jean-Léon Gérôme. She modeled for several of Gérôme's famous works depicting scenes from antiquity, including Pool in a Harem, Omphale, Tanagra, and Pygmalion and Galatea. Dupont began modeling out of necessity after being abandoned in Paris as a teenager but went on to have a successful career posing for celebrated artists of the era. Her regular income allowed her to maintain a modest apartment that displayed artworks gifted to her by the painters and sculptors for whom she modeled.

Early life Emma Dupont had come to Paris with her boyfriend at the age of seventeen. Her town of origin is unknown. When she was abandoned by her boyfriend, Dupont found herself alone in an unfamiliar city. According to her biography written by Paul Dollfus in 1896 (although novelized and full of anecdotes), Dupont was wandering in front of a cafe that she used to frequent with her ex-boyfriend when the owner noticed her. When Dupont tearfully explained her situation to him, the owner gave her some money and told her to return the next morning, promising that he would try to find her a job. When Dupont returned, the cafe owner took her to the Belgian painter Alfred Stevens. This theme of the artist with the model in the studio would be taken up again later by the artist. In the painting The End of the Session, or , Emma Dupont herself is depicted covering the clay model of Omphale with a cloth while the sculptor washes his tools. Later, in the painting Working in Marble (1890), Jean-Léon Gérôme portrayed himself sculpting a marble statue, Tanagra, next to his model, seated in the same rigid position as the sculpture. It is therefore thought that Dupont was also the model for the Tanagra of 1890. It is also hypothesized that Dupont lent her features to the Galatea in the painting Pygmalion and Galatea, dating from 1890.

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