Now That's What I Call A Demo!

[Lonan3]

CLICK

 

From Rodin and Courbet's naked muses and lovers to Degas's clinical study of the female form, the nude has always taken pride of place in French art.

But Paris is now being accused of showing such philistine ingratitude to its life models that scores went on strike yesterday, taking to the streets to pose naked in freezing temperatures to shame the state.

In front of the tastefully decorated Christmas trees outside Paris city hall's culture department, the naked and goose-pimpled models demanded a pay increase, proper contracts and, most of all, respect for their craft as they held trade union banners in the pose of Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People.

The disrespect shown to the models was "proof that something is badly wrong with French society", shouted one shivering male model through a megaphone. Artists, students and art teachers sat sketching them in support.