Editing Alice Prin (section)

== Early life ==
Born as an illegitimate child in [[Châtillon-sur-Seine]], [[Côte-d'Or|Côte d'Or]], Alice Prin had "a wretched childhood that could only lead to laughter or despair".{{sfn|Blume|1999}}{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}} She was raised in abject poverty by her grandmother.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135-139}} At age twelve, she was sent by train to live with her mother, a [[Linotype machine|linotypist]], in Paris in order to help earn an income for her family.{{sfn|Blume|1999}}{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135-139}} Harsh, degrading jobs followed, and she worked in printing shops, shoe factories and bakeries.{{sfn|Blume|1999}}{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135-139}} During this time, she began her lifelong joy of decorating herself.{{sfn|Blume|1999}} She "would crumble a petal from her mother's fake geraniums to give color to her cheeks and was fired from a nasty job at a bakery because she darkened her eyebrows with burnt matchsticks".{{sfn|Blume|1999}}

By the age of fourteen, Prin's "large and splendid body" had garnered the artistic and sexual attention of various Parisian denizens,{{sfn|Blume|1999}} and she began surreptitiously posing nude for sculptors.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}} "It bothered me a little to take off my clothes," Prin wrote her in her memoirs, but "it was the custom".{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}} Her decision to become a nude model created discord with her mother.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}} One day, her mother unexpectedly intruded into an artist's studio in a rage, denounced Prin as a shameless prostitute, and disowned her forever.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}}

Now without money or a roof over her head, the teenage Kiki determined to make her living exclusively by posing for artists.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}} As a beautiful dark-haired girl, she soon found herself in popular demand.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}} At the time, she had scant pubic hair, and when posing, she occasionally drew fake hair with a piece of charcoal.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}} As her fame grew, she became a local celebrity who symbolized the [[Montparnasse]] quarter's nonconformity and its rejection of the social norms of the {{lang|fr|[[petite bourgeoisie]]}}.{{sfn|Brassaï|1976|pp=135–139}}

{{Multiple image|footer=''Kiki de Montparnasse'', 1928 bronze by [[Pablo Gargallo]]
|image1=(Castres) Kiki de Montparnasse par Pablo Gargallo - Musée Goya.jpg
|image2=Kiki de Montparnasse (Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris) (12254857035).jpg}}