Discover NYC Secrets Through Audrey Munson Statues

Audrey Munson statues. You’ve probably seen them dozens of times. If you visited New York City, you passed under Munson’s gaze multiple times a day. Her image graces the façade and interior of the Metropolitan Museum of Art among many other places. Her face personifies beauty all over Manhattan.

AUDREY MUNSON INSPIRATION

Audrey Munson photos and images were ever-present in artists’ studios in the early 1900s.

Her statues are found in many iconic New York City monuments. She is the nude carrying a basket of fruit on the Pulitzer Fountain on 59th street and Fifth Avenue. She is the woman with outstretched arms atop the Maine Monument at the entrance to Central Park.

Audrey Munson is the grieving image on the Strauss Monument in Riverside Park. This monument was dedicated to Isidor and Ida Strauss, part owners of Macy’s Department Store, who died on the Titanic.

She represents “Civic Fame” atop the David Dinkens Municipal Building and “Justice” atop City Hall and “Peace” on the facade of the New York Public Library.

She is “Manhattan” at the entrance of the Manhattan Bridge and once graced the Brooklyn side until her statue was transported to the Brooklyn Museum.

Audrey represents both “Duty” and “Courage” at the Fireman’s Memorial. Her image graces the front of the U.S. Customs House and the doorway of The Frick Collection.

In fact, Audrey Munson’s image appears in at least 20 notable New York City monuments, as well as in many more landmarks and monuments in San Francisco, and other cities. Some say she is the model for the image for the U.S. dime.

Look at the faces of the statues closely, and you will see they are all the same woman. Audrey Munson was an artist’s model, America’s first supermodel, and the first actress to appear nude in a Hollywood film.

Audrey Munson Humble Beginnings

Audrey was born in small town Rochester, New York in 1891 to Edgar and Kittie Munson. She migrated to New York City where her classic beauty attracted the attention of artists and entertainment industry professionals.

She began her modeling career as an artist’s model during the Beaux-Art movement which greatly influenced artists and architects in early 20th century New York City. Artists felt Audrey’s features personified the concepts the Gilded Age was striving to convey.

Her early years were marked by instability — her parents’ marriage was strained. After their divorce, Audrey moved often with her mother in search of work and a better life.

Despite limited means, her mother encouraged her ambitions. In her teens, Audrey moved with her to New York City, hoping for a fresh start. There, she briefly pursued acting and chorus work, performing in small theater productions.

A photographer noticed her striking classical beauty and introduced her to the city’s artists. Her classical features made her the perfect muse for the Beaux-Arts movement.

Soon, she became the most sought-after artist’s model in America, posing for works that would become national treasures.

By her early twenties, Munson’s likeness graced countless public monuments. She embodied ideals of purity, strength, and beauty, earning nicknames like “Miss Manhattan” and “the American Venus.”

Her fame extended beyond sculpture — in 1915, she starred in Inspiration, one of the first films to feature nudity, celebrated as art rather than scandal. The height of Audrey’s career was in her teens and early 20s

At her peak, Munson’s image symbolized the spirit of a rapidly modernizing America. She was everywhere — in bronze, marble, and film — a living representation of beauty and aspiration.

From these modest, uncertain beginnings, Audrey’s image would come to adorn public monuments, fountains, and museums across America.

Yet behind her statuesque grace was the story of a young woman who rose from obscurity, guided by her mother’s perseverance and her own dream of making it big and escaping her past.

Miss Manhattan‘s Decline and Later Years

Audrey Munson’s final days were a haunting contrast to the glory of her youth. Once celebrated as “America’s first supermodel” and the muse behind dozens of iconic sculptures, her fame faded as quickly as it had risen.

By the early 1920s, her modeling career had ended, her film roles were over, and the art world had moved on.

By her mid-20s she had been involved in several scandals that negatively affected her marketability. The most scandalous of these was the matter of her landlord, a love-struck doctor, who murdered his wife.

When they ask him why he killed her, he said he did it so he could be free to marry Audrey. The stunned Audrey claims not to have shared more than a smile with her landlord.

Shunned by the industry, she and her devoted mother moved frequently. Not being able to secure employment in New York, she headed to Hollywood where she appeared in a few silent films where critics panned her performance so severely that an acting double was brought in to do the acting for her.

One film portrayed her as a Greek goddess and required that she perform in the nude. She did and became the first actress to do so. Despite a tasteful, artistic portrayal, she was vilified for appearing nude and returned to New York.

Back in New York and unable to find employment, she and her mother returned to their upstate home and took menial jobs selling kitchen utensils door-to-door to support themselves in their little, rented apartment.

Audrey’s mental health began to decline under the weight of disappointment, loneliness, and financial hardship. It was at about this time that she began to act strangely and suffer from paranoia.

Audrey wrote long convoluted letters to the U.S. government complaining that agents of foreign governments were conspiring to destroy her. At age 31 she attempted to take her own life by swallowing mercury but survived.

By age 40, her behavior had grown so erratic and disturbing that her mother, growing frail herself, petitioned a judge to have Audrey admitted to a local asylum for treatment of the insane. She was admitted to the St. Lawrence State Hospital for the Insane in Ogdensburg in 1931 for treatment of depression and schizophrenia.

There, she lived out her days in near-total anonymity for more than six decades, long forgotten by the world that had once idolized her. Her mother visited when she could, until her death in 1958, leaving Audrey entirely alone.

Audrey Munson Death and Burial

Miss Manhattan remained at the hospital for 65 years until she died in 1996 at the age of 104. During the 65 years of her internment, she had no visitors, but she was the darling of the ward. The staff is said to have doted on her and listen to her stories.

When Audrey told them that her image was on dozens of the most beautiful monuments in New York City, the staff would smile and agree with the senile old woman who harbored such fantastical illusions. Little did they know it was all true.

Audrey Munson’s grave was modest.  She was buried without a headstone in a family plot in New Haven, New York. In 2016 her family gave her a stone just for her.

This was an unthinkably quiet end for the woman whose image had once embodied beauty, art, and the American dream.

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Learn even more about New York City, its monuments and landmarks in these handy guides.

Where have you seen other Audrey Munson statues?

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