Muriel Belcher

Muriel Belcher (1908–1979) was an English nightclub owner and artist's model who founded and managed the private drinking club The Colony Room. The club opened in 1948 at 41 Dean Street, Soho, London^[1] and became known as "Muriel's". Its long term popularity amongst London's bohemians lasted for 60 years and is widely credited to the exclusivity resulting from Belcher's charisma, strong personality and daunting door policy as "a tough, sharp-tongued veteran of the Soho drinking club scene".^[2]

Belcher was the model and muse for a number of paintings, including several single panels and triptychs by Francis Bacon, who was one of the club's first members and used his fame to draw early clientele.^[3] His portrait of her, Seated Woman (Portrait of Muriel Belcher), sold at Sotheby's in Paris in December 2007 for €13.7 million.^[4] Over time, the club was frequented by people such as Lucian Freud, George Melly, Jeffrey Bernard and the Kray Twins. The club saw a resurgence in the early 1990s during the Young British Artists boom in the early 1990s, before eventually closing in 2008, some 29 years after her death.