Another interesting Life of the Day from ODNB
Margaret Lemon, artist's model:
Probably still in her teens, she appears to have been a courtesan when Van Dyck made her his mistress, during his second stay in England (1632-41). She presided over his houses in Blackfriars and Eltham, where he entertained both Charles I and members of the nobility who were his patrons, although there is no evidence that she actually met the king. The Czech engraver Wenceslaus Hollar, who was not liked by Van Dyck, famously described Margaret as a woman of explosive temperament, who once in a fit of jealous rage attempted to end her lover's painting career by biting off his thumb (Urzidil, 47). Van Dyck himself remarked on her financial extravagance (Cust, 136) and there were rumours that she had entertained his friend Endymion Porter at Van Dyck's house in Blackfriars while he was on the continent. Yet her beauty, vivacity, and musical ability seem to have offset the more combustible aspects of her nature. She played the viola da gamba, and Van Dyck painted her at the instrument on at least two occasions.
....
Margaret had presumably left Van Dyck's household before his marriage to Mary Ruthven in 1639. She continued to live in London and posed, both during Van Dyck's lifetime and afterwards, for other aspiring artists, mostly from London's Netherlandish community. Her position as both his model and his mistress seems to have made her an object of artistic interest for these painters, who used her as a model, probably in the hope that both her looks and her reputation would attract public notice to their work.... Among the most important portraits of her by this group of artists is the earliest known miniature by Samuel Cooper (c.1635-1641), which shows her dressed as a young cavalier.... Of Van Dyck's lost painting of her as Flora no fewer than three seventeenth-century engravings and two contemporary copies, all by different artists, are known, indicating that her impact on the group of painters who succeeded Van Dyck was significant.
Sounds like the basis for a riproaring Forever Amber type bonkbuster?
Probably still in her teens, she appears to have been a courtesan when Van Dyck made her his mistress, during his second stay in England (1632-41). She presided over his houses in Blackfriars and Eltham, where he entertained both Charles I and members of the nobility who were his patrons, although there is no evidence that she actually met the king. The Czech engraver Wenceslaus Hollar, who was not liked by Van Dyck, famously described Margaret as a woman of explosive temperament, who once in a fit of jealous rage attempted to end her lover's painting career by biting off his thumb (Urzidil, 47). Van Dyck himself remarked on her financial extravagance (Cust, 136) and there were rumours that she had entertained his friend Endymion Porter at Van Dyck's house in Blackfriars while he was on the continent. Yet her beauty, vivacity, and musical ability seem to have offset the more combustible aspects of her nature. She played the viola da gamba, and Van Dyck painted her at the instrument on at least two occasions.
....
Margaret had presumably left Van Dyck's household before his marriage to Mary Ruthven in 1639. She continued to live in London and posed, both during Van Dyck's lifetime and afterwards, for other aspiring artists, mostly from London's Netherlandish community. Her position as both his model and his mistress seems to have made her an object of artistic interest for these painters, who used her as a model, probably in the hope that both her looks and her reputation would attract public notice to their work.... Among the most important portraits of her by this group of artists is the earliest known miniature by Samuel Cooper (c.1635-1641), which shows her dressed as a young cavalier.... Of Van Dyck's lost painting of her as Flora no fewer than three seventeenth-century engravings and two contemporary copies, all by different artists, are known, indicating that her impact on the group of painters who succeeded Van Dyck was significant.
Sounds like the basis for a riproaring Forever Amber type bonkbuster?