The Magnolia Palace

Lillian is an art model and is highly knowledgeable about works of art, the artistic process, and art history. She is more than a model; she is a “muse,” a collaborator, someone who contributes to the work in a meaningful way. She is passionate about art and her contribution to it—and that passion is a running theme in the novel. Lillian’s contemporary society, however, views her role in the art world differently. To society in and outside of the art world, the fact that she poses nude is scandalous, even while they admire the art or artist. Lillian and her mother, Kitty, recognized this stigma and double standard—Kitty even gave her the pseudonym Angelica to distance her from the scandalous nature of her work and shield her from backlash.

Lillian knows that, because of society’s double standard, her previous life as Angelica affects her possibilities for the future:

Even before the scandal with her landlord, Lillian’s unorthodox past gave her two choices: she could make the move from muse to film actress, be in charge of her own life, or become mistress to a wealthy man who wanted to possess Angelica as a plaything until he tired of her (181).