Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian-Jewish Expressionist painter and sculptor who lived from 1884 to 1920. During his lifetime, he worked mainly in Paris and was most known for his more modern, expressionist-style portraits. His sitters were unbashful, strong individuals who reflected modern ideologies and mannerisms.
Amedeo Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy into a large Jewish community. His family was intellectual, business savvy, and resourceful, and were able to successfully navigate misfortunes. As a young child, Modigliani was often sick, even contracting tuberculosis. His mother was his primary caretaker during these rough periods and indulged in Amedeo’s artistic pursuits. At age 14, his mother enrolled him to study in the studio of Italian artist, Guglielmo Micheli. Though he was taught to work on landscapes, still life, and portrait work, Modigliani showed great promise when it came to painting nudes.
In 1902, at age 18, Modigliani moved to Venice, Italy to pursue his artistic studies. Rather than work on his studies, Modigliani spent a lot of time smoking hashish and hanging out with less reputable people in the seedier parts of town. In 1906, Modigliani moved to the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris to continue his artistic pursuits of sculpture and painting. Within a year, Modigliani had shifted from a culture of academicism and bourgeoise to that of drug indulgence and a rejection of all classically trained art styles. He consumed large quantities of absinthe and hashish. Some scholars believe that his dramatic increase in drug use was a self-medicated means of masking and dealing with the tuberculosis which he still carried and suffered from.
Modigliani was introduced to the African mask artform by the Romanian sculptor, Constantin Brâncuși. This greatly influenced him, which is reflected in his art through the elongated faces and almond-shaped eyes. Modigliani was also influenced by Fauvism, Symbolism, and Cubism. Modigliani was quite poor during his life, and sometimes traded art for food. By 1914, he stopped his sculpture work, choosing to focus on his paintings.
In 1917, at 32 years old, he fell in love with a young French artist, Jeanne Hébuterne, with whom he would spend the rest of his life. Hébuterne was modelling for aspiring artists of that day, as well as attending art school herself and he met her at her school where he had gone to sketch live models. Soon after their meeting, Modigliani ended the relationship he was currently in, and Hébuterne moved in with him.
Modigliani’s reputation as a vagabond of disrepute made Hébuterne’s family disapprove of the relationship, though that did not stop them. Hébuterne moved in with Modigliani and became his muse. She is the subject of over 20 of his paintings during this period. In 1917, Modigliani also had his first and only solo art show in Paris.
In the beginning of 1918, to avoid the conflict in Paris at the end of the war, Modigliani and Hébuterne moved south. First, they moved to Cagnes-sur-Mer, a town along the Mediterranean coast. After Hébuterne got pregnant, they moved to Nice to where they had hoped his work would sell to the rich tourists. In Nice, they had their daughter, Jeanne, and spent time with fellow artists, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Pablo Picasso.
After moving back to Paris in 1919, Hébuterne got pregnant with the couple’s second child. At this point in his life, Modigliania was very sick with tuberculosis, and he excessively self-medicated with alcohol and drugs, often blacking out. The alcohol, drugs, and poverty finally took its toll and Amedeo Modigliani died of tubercular meningitis in 1920 at only 35 years of age. Within 24 hours, Jeanne Hébuterne, completely distraught, walked backwards out of the fifth story window of her parents’ home, killing herself and their unborn child. She was only 21 years old. After his death, his artistic genius was finally recognized. Though he died in utter poverty, today, his works sell for millions.
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