Sara Murphy

The Murphys - 2/4

Gerald and Sara Murphy, La Garoupe Beach, Cap d’Antibes, 1926 © Beinecke Library, Yale.

My second article is dedicated to a very inspiring woman, Sara Wiborg, a Midwestern beauty from a family of ink-printing magnates based in Cincinnati, OH, where she was born in 1883… in the American Dream…

Sara Murphy née Wiborg, by Man Ray, 1926

Sara’s father, Frank Wiborg, was born in Cleveland, OH, in 1855, the son of a Norwegian immigrant. It was in Cincinnati that he teamed up with Canadian Lee Ault. They founded the Ault & Wiborg Company, which was to become the largest manufacturer of printing ink in the world. Toulouse-Lautrec would use Ault & Wiborg inks for his prints. He celebrated these inks in a poster he designed for the company.

Au Concert, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1896, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Sara Wiborg spent a larger part of her childhood in Europe, and was the eldest of three daughters. She also spoke French, German and Italian. In 1904, aged 21, she met Gerald Murphy, 16, at a party in East Hampton, NY.

Sara and Gerald married in 1915. Their parents opposed their marriage. They stood firm.

Sara Wiborg, engagement photograph, cover of “Town & Country” magazine, 1915, © Beinecke Library, Yale.

Among her friends in France, Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger, who used her as a model…

Seated Nude, by Pablo Picasso, 1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Woman in white, by Pablo Picasso, 1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Portrait of Sara Murphy by Pablo Picasso, 1923

Sara Murphy by Fernand Léger, Weatherbird Portfolio, 1934

Next article: Sara & Gerald Murphy