Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (* July 12, 1884 in Livorno; † January 24, 1920 in Paris) was an Italian draftsman, painter and sculptor. His current fame is based primarily on his nude paintings, which were considered scandalous in his time and only later found acceptance.
Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied ancient and Renaissance art, until he moved to Paris in 1906. There he came into contact with important artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși. His life was marked by lung diseases.
He is said to have recognized his vocation to art in a fever dream, and died of tuberculosis at the age of 35. The information about Modigliani's life is based on only a few authenticated documents, so that legends were created around him, especially after his death.
Modigliani's complete works include mainly paintings and drawings. From 1909 to 1914, however, he devoted himself mainly to sculpture. The main motif is man, both in paintings and sculptures. In addition, there are a few paintings with landscape motifs. Interior scenes and still lifes by Modigliani are not known.
Modigliani often referred to the Renaissance in his works, but also picked up other elements such as African art, which was popular in his time. On the other hand, he cannot be assigned to any of the contemporary styles, such as Cubism or Fauvism. During his life Amedeo Modigliani had little success with his art, only after his death he achieved greater popularity and his artworks achieved high prices.
Amedeo Modigliani's Life
First years and childhood
Amedeo Modigliani was born the fourth and youngest child of Flaminio and Eugenia Modigliani. One of his brothers was Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani, who later became a politician for the Partito Socialista Italiano and a member of the Italian Parliament. The Modigliani family belonged to the enlightened Jewish bourgeoisie of the city.
As Sephardic Jews, members of the family lived according to a liberal interpretation of their faith. When Amedeo Modigliani was born, the family business dealing in wood and coal had already gone bankrupt as a result of the bad economy. Modigliani's mother therefore contributed to the family's upkeep as a private teacher and translator - of Gabriele D'Annunzio's poems, among others. She also wrote literary criticism under a pseudonym.
Amedeo Modigliani probably attended the traditional five o'clock teas at the home of his grandfather Isaac Garsin, where, for example, works by Oscar Wilde were discussed. Since his mother was from Marseille, Amedeo Modigliani learned the French language at an early age, which later facilitated his integration in Paris.
At the age of eleven, Amedeo Modigliani suffered from a severe pleurisy. In 1898, at the age of 14, he contracted typhoid fever, which at that time was still considered a fatal disease. During the illness, according to his mother's account, he had a fever dream in which he fantasized about the artistic masterpieces in Italy and which thus showed him his artistic destiny. After Amedeo Modigliani recovered, he received permission from his parents to drop out of school and begin studying art.
Amedeo Modigliani's Education
Amedeo Modigliani enrolled in the private drawing and painting school of the painter Guglielmo Micheli in Livorno in 1898. There, at the age of 14, he was the youngest student in his class. In addition to his artistic training at the school, which was still strongly oriented toward Impressionism, he learned to paint nudes in the studio of Gino Romiti.
In July 1900 he fell ill with tuberculosis. Because the change of air was to favor his recovery, he spent the winter of 1900/1901 with his mother on a trip to Naples, Capri and Rome. From there, Amedeo Modigliani wrote five letters to the artist Oscar Ghiglia, nine years his senior, with whom he was friends.
These letters are among the few written documents of Modigliani that have survived. In them, he described, among other things, his impression of Rome: "Rome is not around me as I tell you, but within me, like a terrible jewel hemmed in by its seven hills as by seven imperious ideas."
In the spring of 1901, Amedeo Modigliani followed his friend Ghiglia to Florence. After spending the winter of 1901/1902 in Rome, he returned to Florence and enrolled at the Scuola libera di Nudo (German: freie Aktzeichenschule) on May 7, 1902.
There he studied with Giovanni Fattori and, in addition, occupied himself mainly with Renaissance art. In 1903, again following Ghiglia, he went to Venice, where he lived in the Dorsoduro district, directly opposite the Chiesa di San Sebastiano, until he moved to Paris. He enrolled at the Istituto di Belle Arti di Venezia on March 19 of that year.
There he took courses in the free nude drawing class, among others. His focus was on the study of Italian art history; he pursued painting less intensively. In 1903 and 1905 he came into contact with the works of the French Impressionists, with Rodin's sculptures and works of Symbolism at the biennials. During his studies in Venice, Modigliani began to consume hashish, and participated in spiritualist sessions.
Move to Paris
At the beginning of 1906, Amedeo Modigliani moved to Paris, as the artist scene there was considered particularly progressive and was developing and establishing new art styles. The previous year, relatively unknown artists, such as André Derain and Henri Matisse, who had been given the derisive name Les Fauves (German: Die Wilden) by critics, had exhibited at the Autumn Salon.
The Paris art world became the center of avant-garde painting with progressive art dealers who supported young and innovative artists such as Pablo Picasso. Upon his arrival, Modigliani initially lived in a comfortable hotel on the right bank of the Seine, which seemed appropriate because of his background in a bourgeois family. After a short time, he moved to the Montmartre neighborhood, where he lived in the Bateau-Lavoir and used a simple studio, among other places, and took nude drawing lessons at the Académie Colarossi.
His mother sent him as much money as she could, but it was not enough for Modigliani to survive. Therefore, he often changed his lodgings and sometimes left his artwork behind when he fled an apartment because he could no longer pay the rent. One of the first friendships Modigliani made in Paris was with the German painter Ludwig Meidner.
The latter later described Modigliani's position and appearance in Parisian society: "Our Modigliani [...] was a characteristic and at the same time highly gifted representative of the bohemians of Montmartre; probably even the last true bohemian." Modigliani, despite his health problems, participated in the dissolute life of the artists of Montmartre.
In the spring of 1907, Modigliani was taken by the painter Henri Doucet to a house that Paul Alexandre had rented for young artists. The young doctor Alexandre was fascinated by Modigliani's paintings and therefore began to support him.
He bought paintings and drawings from him and arranged portrait commissions. Modigliani exhibited in 1907 at the avant-garde Autumn Salon, which was influenced by the Fauvists. The following year he showed six paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, including The Jewess. His paintings, however, received little attention.
For example, the influential publicist Guillaume Apollinaire mentioned Amedeo Modigliani only in passing in his critique of the Salon. Paul Alexandre succeeded in gaining Modigliani access to wealthy circles, so that in the spring of 1909 he received his first paid commission with the portrait The Amazon of Baroness Marguerite de Hasse de Villers.
Time as a sculptor
In 1909, Modigliani met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși through Paul Alexandre and, on his advice, moved into his studio at the Cité Falguière on Montparnasse in April 1909. As a result of this acquaintance, Modigliani began sculpting stone in the same year, which became the focus of his work for some time. In Livorno and in Carrara, impressed by Brâncuşi's concise style, he had been drawn to sculpture.
Likewise, Modigliani may have wanted to work as a sculptor before, but did not have the technical possibilities that were only available with the new studio. Also, the ancient heritage of Italy, which he knew from his own experience, could have been an inspiration for making sculptures. Another possibility would be that Modigliani wanted to try his hand at another artistic genre because of the stagnating success of his painting.
In 1910 Modigliani met the Russian-born poet Anna Akhmatova, with whom he had a relationship in the following period. In 1911 he exhibited his archaic-looking stone sculptures in the studio of the Portuguese artist Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. A period of intense preoccupation with the motif of caryatids in his works, both in sculpture and in paintings, began.
The following year, Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited at the Autumn Salon. Modigliani met sculptors Jacob Epstein and Jacques Lipchitz, who also lived in Paris, the latter of whom described Modigliani's art as "an expression of his personal feeling." In the spring of 1913, Amedeo Modigliani stayed in Livorno, where he took up quarters near a quarry.
In this quarry he worked as a marble sculptor, having previously worked only with sand-lime stone. He sent the completed sculptures to Paris, but they were not handed down.
The exact reasons for the termination of his sculpting activities after 1913 are not known. One reason could have been his failing health, which was further damaged by the dusty environment.
He also may have seen no future for his work as a sculptor. He was not developing artistically and the few exhibitions brought little attention or financial improvement. Thus, out of these considerations, he may have turned back to the more lucrative painting.
Return to painting and life during the First World War
In the spring of 1914, Amedeo Modigliani met the art dealer Paul Guillaume, who represented some young and still unknown artists. Guillaume also took over Modigliani's representation after the latter lost track of Paul Alexandre with the start of World War I, and involved him in several group exhibitions at his gallery.
With the beginning of the war, Modigliani volunteered for military service, but was not drafted due to his poor health. Therefore, he belonged to the smaller circle of artists who stayed in Paris.
In June 1914 Modigliani met the English woman of letters Beatrice Hastings, with whom he was romantically involved for over two years. She stayed in Paris as a columnist for the English newspaper The New Age and wrote about the city's social life.
Among other things, she described Modigliani's consumption of hashish and alcohol, under which he "never accomplished anything good." During his turbulent relationship with Beatrice Hastings, Modigliani's excessive life intensified. His consumption of alcohol and opium, which he shared with his friends Maurice Utrillo and Chaim Soutine, was picked up in the press.
In 1915, Modigliani moved with Beatrice Hastings to Rue Norvaine on the Butte Montmartre and painted a portrait of Pablo Picasso. A year later, other portraits of famous people followed, including his friend Jacques Lipchitz as well as Chaim Soutine, for whom Modigliani was also a close friend and supporter. With these portraits of the avant-garde of Paris, Modigliani himself was associated with it.
It secured him a singular place among Parisian artists, as his portraits captured an image of this scene, and enabled the later legend of Modigliani as the main figure of Parisian artistry. In addition, Amedeo Modigliani met the Polish art dealer and poet Leopold Zborowski through the mediation of his artist friend Moïse Kisling.
As a dealer, Zborowski did not have Guillaume's contacts or his feeling for avant-garde painting, but he nevertheless supported Modigliani in the last years of his life. For example, he and his wife Anna took the artist into their home after he separated from Beatrice Hastings. Zborowski paid Modigliani a daily allowance and painting materials and let him work in his apartment. Later he also paid the models for Modigliani's nude paintings.
Amedeo Modigliani produced a series of about 30 nude paintings in 1916 and 1917. Through the mediation of Leopold Zborowski, these paintings were shown in a solo exhibition in the gallery of the art dealer Berthe Weill. On December 3, 1917, the exhibition was opened with a vernissage with invited guests.
The gallery was located across the street from a police station and an inspector became aware of the crowd that was forming as a result of a nude presented in the display window. He called Berthe Weill to him and asked her to stop the exhibition and take down the paintings because they were too revealing. In order to prevent the confiscation of the pictures, Weill complied with the request.
Stay in the South of France
In April 1917, Modigliani met the 19-year-old Jeanne Hébuterne, who was studying at the Académie Colarossi. The two moved into an apartment together a short time later. In 1918, together with the Zborowski couple and Modigliani's friend Soutine, they left Paris when an invasion by German troops was imminent.
In addition, Zborowski's interest as an art dealer may have been a motive for this move, as a change of air might do the two ailing artists Modigliani and Soutine good and increase their productivity. They went to the French Mediterranean coast, where Modigliani painted numerous portraits, to which he had turned again after the nudes. He sent the finished paintings to Paris for sale.
Little is known about Modigliani's year in the south of France, as there are few written documents and Parisian contemporaries had little to say about him in his absence. Initially Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne, and his friends lived in Cagnes-sur-Mer, later moving to Nice. There Jeanne Hébuterne gave birth to a daughter on November 29, 1918. Amedeo Modigliani acknowledged paternity of the child, who was given the mother's first name.
During his stay in Nice and the surrounding area, Modigliani visited Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who lived in an estate overlooking the coast. A painter living in the neighborhood later reported that there had been an argument between the old master of Impressionism and the young painter about Renoir's advice.
Last year of life and death
After mediation by Zborowski, several works by Modigliani were shown at exhibitions in England in 1919, including the Modern French Painting exhibition in Heale. Furthermore, in September of that year, London's Hill Gallery showed ten of Modigliani's works.
At the end of May 1919, Modigliani returned to Paris, where he participated in the Autumn Salon. During this time, he was also supported by the Finnish painter Léopold Survage, who made his studio available to him. When Jeanne Hébuterne became pregnant again, Amedeo Modigliani became engaged to her.
There exists a marriage engagement dated July 7, 1919, in which he officially acknowledged her as his future wife and their common daughter as his child. However, he was no longer able to realize this marriage intention, as he fell seriously ill with tuberculosis towards the end of the year.
On January 24, 1920, Modigliani died in the Charité in Paris. The day after next, his fiancée died by suicide. Modigliani was buried with great sympathy at the Père Lachaise cemetery. Hébuterne was later buried next to him after her family gave up opposition to it. Their daughter Jeanne was adopted by Modigliani's sister in Florence.
Work of Amedeo Modigliani
The complete works of Amedeo Modigliani consist of paintings, drawings and sculptures. The œuvre includes about 420 paintings, of which only 14 are dated, and about 25 sculptures. With the exception of a few landscape paintings, the focus of Modigliani's art is on the representation of man.
This is expressed in the portraits, nudes, and sculptures of human heads and figures, respectively, and shows an intact image of the human being. Modigliani cannot be assigned to any modern art movement.
His works combine expressionist, cubist and symbolist elements, but also show a reference back to antiquity, the Renaissance and Mannerism, which he knew from his student days in Italy. Thus he created his own individual style.
Linear and elongated forms are characteristic of Amedeo Modigliani's style. Many of his paintings show elements typical of Modigliani, such as elongated faces and blind eyes.
The representation is greatly reduced; in the portraits and nudes it is so focused on the person that the space recedes into the background and hardly any attributes can be found next to the central figure. Only in Modigliani's late works are clues to the social environment of the person depicted given by a few objects in the picture. Before 1914, Modigliani also produced a few circus and vaudeville drawings that place the characters in a larger narrative context.
Since Modigliani dated only a fraction of his works, the exact sequence of the images can only be reconstructed through stylistic analysis and lore from contemporary accounts. A stylistic and compositional development can be traced within the oeuvre, which led to paintings that were striving ever closer to completion.
Portraits
Portraits make up the majority of Amedeo Modigliani's paintings. Among his early works is the picture The Jewess, painted around 1908. The 55 × 46 centimeter oil painting is statuesque. It shows a stern-looking woman, whose face is clearly carved out and stands out clearly against the rather blurred surroundings.
The main focus of the painting is the depiction of the psychology of the person, which is expressed in the communication of the mood, the demeanor in the picture and in the woman's gaze at the viewer. That is why the representation is also very measured and, despite the light brushwork, does not focus on the independent use of colors and areas. However, there are parts of the painting that are strongly influenced by the purely painterly treatment of the surface.
An example of this is the color field in the lower right corner of the picture, which cannot be assigned to a concrete object. Therein lies a reference to Maurice Denis' idea that a painting, before it shows its object, is only a surface that is covered with color according to a certain order. This definition was of great importance for the period in which Modigliani also worked. However, The Jewess also shows Modigliani's search for his place in art amidst the various avant-garde movements.
The work includes influences from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch, and Paul Cézanne, and contrasts with the prevailing Fauvist painting with its dominant use of color. When the painting was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1908, its dark colors contrasted with most of the other works on display.
In pictorial terms, The Jewess is also restrained, considering that the previous year had seen the emergence of Cubism, which blasted space and perspective. Modigliani's application of color in this painting is strongly oriented to that of Expressionism.
During World War I, after his phase as a sculptor, Modigliani painted portraits of many friends and artists who remained in Paris. One of these portraits is the portrait Diego Rivera from 1914. The 100 × 79 centimeter painting, done in oil on cardboard, shows the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, who had come to Paris three years earlier and quickly became part of the circle of friends around Picasso.
In 1929 Rivera married Frida Kahlo and was the main representative of Mexican mural painting in the 1930s. He was painted several times by Modigliani. This painting reflects Rivera's revolutionary views and temperament through the free color stain painting.
The color was applied to the painting surface in a dabbing manner. In doing so, Modigliani did not orient himself on the colorism of Cézanne, whom he admired, but rather produced an echo of Impressionist painting. The stroke technique of this painting is also reminiscent of Modigliani's work in creating sculptures. It creates the impression of a relief carved into the painting ground. The painting shows the upper half of Rivera's body.
The round face is framed by the hair and the chest. Both elements, like the upper body, are not concretely delineated from the background of the painting. Therefore, the impression is created that the body fills the entire picture. Diego Rivera's eyes are almost completely closed, and his mouth is covered with a smile. Therefore, he appears pensive and satisfied.
Due to the painting style, the picture is one of the more expressive ones by Amedeo Modigliani, in contrast to the following portraits, whose painting style is simpler and smoother, and in which he placed more emphasis on the depiction of the external appearance than on the character of the person depicted.
The portrait Portrait Jacques Lipchitz and His Wife Berthe Lipchitz from 1916 or 1917 is one of the paintings in which Amedeo Modigliani abandoned the depiction of a character's psychology and instead created representative portraits that drew on Baroque models. Modigliani painted this 80.2 × 53.5 centimeter oil painting after the Lipchitz wedding photograph in several portrait sessions.
This was not unusual, as he used photographs as models for paintings several times at this time. This picture occupies a special place in Modigliani's oeuvre, as it is one of his few double portraits. The importance of these images is made clear by the fact that group portraits do not exist at all in Modigliani's œuvre.
The portrait of the young couple was preceded by several sketches, which, however, were still aimed at a single portrait. In them Modigliani felt his way ever closer to the final composition of the picture. The picture shows the groom Jacques Lipchitz standing behind his seated wife Berthe. He has his left arm around his wife's shoulder.
They are both dressed in dark clothes and thus stand out against the lighter background of the picture. Their faces are rounded and their eyes empty. The two sitters, with whom Modigliani maintained friendly contact, appear sympathetic in the portrait, but are depicted from an emotionless distance. This is a central characteristic of the portraits of the following years until Modigliani's death.
On the way to the final version of the portrait, a stylistic development also took place. Thus the vertical and the horizontal recede into the background, so that curved lines and flowing forms dominate in the picture. With the irregular lettering LIPCHITZ written in capital letters, the portrait of the Lipchitz couple exhibits a stylistic characteristic of Modigliani that many of his portraits of friends have in common.
This inscription, which clearly differs from the signature in its awkward brushwork, was formally based on the tradition of Renaissance paintings. Artists such as Giorgone and Titian provided information in the inscriptions not only about the sitter's name, but also, for example, about membership in secret societies.
With the formal quotation, Modigliani may have alluded to a similar inner affinity with the friends portrayed. He also used it to lighten the composition of the picture. In the Baroque and Renaissance references, it further becomes clear that Modigliani also applied his knowledge of earlier art epochs, which he had acquired in the studies of his early years, in his paintings.
Many of Amedeo Modigliani's portraits show his two lovers, Beatrice Hastings and Jeanne Hébuterne. The paintings of Hastings often feature a pointed rendering of the eyes, mouth, and nose. They show a strong focus on the character of his mistress, who was considered eccentric.
The paintings have a playful and unofficial effect that is a result of the close and, by Hastings' own account, dramatic relationship. The relationship with Jeanne Hébuterne was not as turbulent due to the large age difference. She looked up to Modigliani and was not the discussion partner that Hastings was.
Hébuterne's portraits do not show much variation in perspective or style. In some paintings she is depicted as a child-woman, revealing a reference to youthful naiveté, although she was a constant in Modigliani's life. Jeanne Hébuterne made Modigliani rethink his life, which was dominated by alcohol and other intoxicating drugs. Jeanne's pregnancy marked a serious change in Modigliani's life and contrasted with his previous lifestyle.
It was in this situation that the painting Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne was created, showing her as a heavily pregnant woman. The portrait depicts Jeanne Hébuterne in a seated position with her hands resting in her lap and her head tilted to the side. Modigliani does not conceal the fact of her pregnancy, but emphasizes it.
For example, the curved finger of the right hand points to the belly. Another emphasizing element are the stripes in the hip region drawing attention to the abdominal area. Despite the elongated neck, there is a slightly implied double chin, indicating the severity of the final stage of pregnancy. The color scheme is very balanced.
The dark area of clothing and hair are balanced by the stripes on the hips and arms, and the green and orange background of the image. The image creates a very calm mood, it does not contain any movement and the person appears to be at rest, which is especially evident in the head pose. A special intensity is created by Jeanne Hébuternes direct gaze on the viewer, which also radiates calm.
Nudes
Amedeo Modigliani painted nudes throughout his life, which represent the second largest group of works after the portraits. The first ones date from 1908, such as the painting Suffering Nude - Nudo Dolente. This 81 × 54 centimeter oil painting depicts a half-figure woman.
The gaunt woman is shown completely naked. Her head is thrown back, and her mouth is open. This is a sign of ecstasy, suffering, pain and sensuality. The true expression of the person is hidden behind the mask-like face. The shoulders are pulled forward. The unnaturally long arms hang loosely from them, the hands rest on the thighs.
The woman is so thin that she bears resemblance to a skeleton. Modigliani's nude thus contradicted the classical content of this pictorial genre, which had a sensual and strongly sexual reference. Against the dark background of the picture, the light, almost white body stands out clearly and is emphasized by the light-dark contrast.
The paint application is rough and makes the painting look partially unfinished. In this painting, Modigliani's similar conception of the body becomes clear in relation to other artists of the time. Thus, there are similarities with paintings such as Madonna by Edvard Munch from 1894 or works by George Minne.
In 1916 and 1917 Modigliani painted his well-known series of nudes, which includes 30 paintings. They show sitting, standing or reclining models, idealized in their nudity. The women's bodies form the central pictorial element; space and other objects recede into the background and are represented in the painting only to a minor extent.
Their depiction has no mythological or historical reference, but serves to represent nudity alone. Nevertheless, they are in the tradition of the depiction of the nude Venus, which was the predominant nude motif from the Renaissance until the 19th century.
However, Modigliani took his cue from Italian Renaissance masters such as Titian, Sandro Botticelli, and Giorgione, but they worked before the academic era of painting. Their depictions did not follow any particular nude poses, but feature individual expressions of each artist. With the art academies, a defining understanding of the nude had been established.
There was a certain and restricted canon of poses of the nude models, strict and formal rules. In his nudes, Amedeo Modigliani breaks with this academic tradition by disregarding proportions, anatomy, and movement in the paintings. In addition, the poses of the models do not conform to academic doctrine. Modigliani's nudes were also influenced by his studies, which he pursued at the Académie Colarossi.
There, students were provided with models whose poses they were free to determine. In addition, so-called quarter-hour nudes were painted, which required a sketchy, quick grasp of the subject. Thus, many nude drawings by Modigliani have survived from the Paris years.
The 60.6 × 92.7 centimeter painting Reclining Nude is one of Modigliani's most famous works and also comes from the series of paintings from 1916 and 1917. It shows a reclining model who is centrally located in the middle of the picture. The woman is shown in a slight top view from close up, so that her extremities are not fully depicted.
Thus, the forearms with the hands and the legs below the hips are missing. The face is turned towards the viewer, the eyes are open and look directly at the viewer. The hips are turned slightly backwards, which means that the pubic area is not visible. T
he body is on a red bed sheet, which creates a slight light-dark contrast. Under the head is a white pillow, which, with the base of the white bedspread, forms the brightest areas of the image. The wall can be seen in the background. Overall, there are hardly any pictorial elements besides the body that distract from it.
The composition of the picture is based on the nude photography of the time, but the eroticism is not overemphasized, but melancholically graded. Whereby dignity and coolness emanates from the depicted woman, which represents a connection to the sculptures of Modigliani.
After the series of 1916 and 1917, Amedeo Modigliani only occasionally painted nudes such as Standing Nude - Elvira from 1918. This 92 × 60 centimeter oil painting was created during Modigliani's stay in the south of France. Typical of his paintings of this period, it was painted with much lighter colors. The dominant dark hues, especially red, are replaced in this painting by turquoise.
The standing model, shown only from the thighs up, occupies the central position in the painting. Apart from a white sheet covering the pubic area, there are no other compositional elements in the picture. The outlines of the body are strongly emphasized and the colors are applied over a large area, reinforcing the presence of the person.
Landscapes
Among Amedeo Modigliani's works there are only a few landscape paintings. These were created in his early years in Italy, on his travels to his homeland and during his stay in southern France. While the 1898 painting Landscape in Tuscany was still oriented toward Impressionism and lacks clear contours but appears blurred, the 60 × 45 centimeter painting Landscape, for example, painted in 1919, contrasts with this.
Painted in the south of France, this painting is structured by clear outlines. In the hills in the background of the painting, the buildings form clear geometric structures that contrast with the shapes of the clouds surrounding them, which, however, also have clear outlines. In the foreground, there is a red surface running diagonally through the picture, representing either a path or a bridge railing.
With the red of this picture element the color of the house roofs is taken up again. It is clearly delineated from its surroundings, evoking a sense of confinement and boundedness. The hills in the center of the picture lead into the background in the form of terraces, creating an impression of spatial depth. This contrasts with the trees in the foreground, which further structure the image with their long linear structures.
Modigliani's focus on the portrait is also expressed through the format in the landscapes he painted in southern France. Instead of the usual landscape format for landscapes, he also used the portrait format. Amedeo Modigliani's paintings bear similarities to landscapes by Paul Cézanne, who was among Modigliani's artistic models, as well as to paintings by other artists of the time.
For example, there are compositional parallels to paintings by Gustav Klimt. In addition, there are other similarities such as the stylized appearance of the trees, as well as the spatial arrangement of the picture elements.
Sculptures and paintings related to sculpture
Between 1909 and 1914, Amedeo Modigliani devoted himself almost exclusively to sculpture. Besides him, other painters also turned to this genre of art at this time, such as Picasso, Matisse and André Derain. This happened as a result of the great popularity of African art before the First World War, whose sculptures achieved high popularity under the term Negro sculpture.
In addition, Amedeo Modigliani became acquainted with the sculptor Brancusi, whose sculptures were exhibited alongside his paintings in the Autumn Salon. It was only after his contact with Brancusi that Modigliani turned to sculpture and moved into a studio set up for sculpture at Montparnasse.
Most of Amedeo Modigliani's sculptures depict heads, which he called pillars of tenderness. According to art historian Gerhard Kolberg, these sculptures "oscillate between high idealistic and sculptural aspirations and primitive to archaic sculptural execution." It is particularly striking that Modigliani, despite his inexperience as a sculptor, was able to give his head sculptures a uniform stylistic appearance.
They all have a uniform basic scale and are worked from highly rectangular blocks of stone. The heads are worked out in an idol-like and iconic manner, and due to their simplicity they radiate a majestic dignity. In the joint exhibitions of these sculptures in 1911, it became clear that they show their significance only in the totality, but not in the individual work.
To further enhance the effect of the presentation, Modigliani developed his own lighting concept for the objects. With this kind of exhibition, he staged his sculptures in such a way that a mysterious and religious impression was created. One example of this series is the 70.5 × 23, 5 × 7.6 centimeter head of a woman, which is in the possession of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It exhibits the typical features of Modigliani's head depictions.
The face is elongated, so that the nose and ears are unnaturally long. The chin is pointed, and the distance between the eyes is small. The facial expression conveys no emotion, but radiates calmness alone.
Besides the head sculptures, Amedeo Modigliani created only two others that are known today: a standing figure and a caryatid. The latter shows a clear reference back to Greco-Roman antiquity. Caryatids are robed figures in human form that support entire cornices or floors as columns and have been an integral part of architecture since antiquity.
The sculpture Karyatide from 1914 only shows a reference to this function through its posture. The figure kneels on one leg, the other is drawn bent to the body. The strong female figure holds both arms raised above her head. Modigliani only hints at the load she had to carry by means of a plate. The weight of the sculpture is concentrated solely on the central axis of the figure, which gives it stability.
The sand-lime stone used was only roughly worked by Modigliani, which created a rough surface in contrast to the smooth surfaces of the head sculptures. There is no face carved out, so the figure has a special anonymity.
During his sculptural creative phase, Modigliani painted only a few pictures. These usually also had a reference to sculpture, were inspired by statues or took up the motif of the caryatid. An example of this group of paintings is the 72.5 × 50 centimeter oil painting Karyatide, which was created around 1911/1912.
In terms of posture, the figure bears a strong resemblance to the sculpture created in 1914. The body has been composed of individual elements in a geometric way. The entire body is elongated and features extended, powerful arms. Thus, the image does not show a sensual representation of a woman, but that of strength and tranquility.
The woman's face resembles those of ancient Egyptian and Mycenaean statues, which is also a reception of the works he studied. The bending of the figure is not sculpturally feasible, as the distribution of weight at the base would cause the figure to topple. Thus, the painting represents a way for Modigliani not to be bound by the limitations of creating a sculpture in his treatment of the subject.
Drawings
Many drawings by Amedeo Modigliani have survived. Their high number may be due to the artist's period of study. At the Académie Colarossi, he learned how to quickly sketch a figure in the 15-minute act, as the model took up a different position each time after 15 minutes. Later, too, his drawings were made in a very short time and without many corrections.
He laid out the drawings in broad strokes, with obvious inaccuracies, which exist in some exceptional cases, being an effect intended by the artist. Throughout his artistic career, he put the drawings on paper only after they had previously taken shape in his mind.
There was no technical development in his work. He mostly used sheets that he cut out of his sketchbooks at the perforation and on which he sketched with ink and black oil pastels. Less often he used watercolor, graphite, red chalk, charcoal pencil and blue to purple chalk.
Most of Modigliani's drawings are studies in which he tested motifs and compositions, and renderings of a situation or a figure created from the moment. The drawings inspired by the theater and circus, made in 1908, stand out from the rest of Modigliani's work because they represent a completely different subject.
They are not focused solely on the figure, but present it in a broader narrative context. Two of the sketches show a hall of the Gaîté-Rochechouart in Montmartre, where Modigliani has seen a performance. One shows a group of actors on stage, the other an empty stage.
The same spectators can be seen in both paintings, so it is proven that both drawings were executed in the same performance on the spot. With the drawings of dancers, artists and a marionette, those from the theater make up the only works by Modigliani in which his pleasure in and inclination towards the theater and circus are clear.
Given the large number of drawings made during his years as a sculptor, it is assumed that most of them were not models for concrete individual pieces, but that Modigliani recorded ideas for unrealized sculptures in them.
In this context, no drawing is a copy of another, but because of their stylistic similarity, they exhibit a "wonderful monotony of obsession," according to Claude Roy. Furthermore, there are many portrait and nude drawings.
Significance, evaluation and success of Amedeo Modigliani
For most of his life, Amedeo Modigliani had little success with his art. His works were in little demand, as they did not belong to the great new trends in art, but showed a personal style. From 1914, after the end of his phase as a sculptor, Modigliani developed a new more decorative style that gradually brought increasing success with his long necks and almond-shaped eyes.
At this time, the New Objectivity movement was emerging, in which the depiction of an intact human image was in demand. In addition, Modigliani compromised more as a result of his relationship with Jeanne Hébuterne and the birth of his daughter.
Thus his paintings became more pleasing and thus more saleable. The prices for his paintings rose rapidly as a result. One of the most important collectors of Modigliani's works was Roger Dutilleul, a French industrialist and art collector, who acquired about one tenth of Modigliani's entire oeuvre between 1918 and 1925.
Modigliani himself rarely commented on his art. According to reports by his contemporaries, he cultivated the image of a Jewish outsider and foreigner. Yet according to his self-image as an artist, he was a "superuomo" (German: "superman") and society's chosen one. The strict separation of his private life from his art is striking.
He painted only one self-portrait and did not take up the unsteady lifestyle in his works of art, but developed a clear and simple style. His paintings combine tradition with modernity.
At the same time, Modigliani was not a pioneer or forerunner of an artistic development. Rather, he remained a stylistic outsider and loner. By bridging the gap between modern art and past art eras, Modigliani made an outstanding individual contribution to the art of the 20th century.
In the history of reception, Modigliani's nudes represent the most discussed and praised part of his oeuvre, although they represent only about one tenth of it. The position of these paintings was justified by the censorship that remained even after Modigliani's death and the effect they had on the viewer. Even after the Second World War, the nudes triggered discussions about their pornographic content.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, for example, had to justify itself when it wanted to have reproductions of the painting Nude with Necklace in its possession printed. Modigliani's nudes received various contradictory judgments. On the one hand, they were positively described as "fascinating-sensual," while other critics found them "coldly repulsive."
Amedeo Modigliani developed his own style in the nudes. While other painters of the time such as Picasso, Matisse, Tsuguharu Foujita or Kees van Dongen depicted the naked female body in a more extensive subject, Modigliani concentrated solely on the depiction of the female body, did not give any action in the picture and also no further information about the model.
In 1955, works by him were shown at documenta 1 in Kassel and also at documenta III in 1964 in the famous department of hand drawings. A similar head sculpture owned by the heirs of French department store founder Gaston Lévy fetched 43.2 million euros, including buyer's premium, at Christie's in Paris in June 2010.
The highest price for a painting by the artist was achieved at an auction held by Christie's in New York on November 9, 2015, when the painting Nu couché changed hands for $170.4 million (about 158.5 million euros). Five years earlier, Modigliani's Nu assis sur un divan (La Belle Romaine) had sold at auction for $68,962,500.
The highest price ever paid for a sculpture by Modigliani was paid by an anonymous buyer on November 4, 2014, at an auction in the New York branch of Sotheby's, when the sculpture Tête changed hands for $70.7 million.
Forgeries and establishing authenticity
When, after Modigliani's death, his works of art increased in price, authentic paintings by Modigliani were subsequently provided with his signature at the beginning. In this way, businessmen were able to increase the value of the paintings considerably.
In addition, completely new paintings were produced, which were passed off as works by Modigliani and also fetched good prices. The forgeries were favored by the difficulty of establishing authenticity. A statement about it could often be made only by comparative seeing.
By studying as many originals as possible, the painting technique of an artist, signature, choice of color, composition and other characteristics are analyzed, so that other paintings can be compared in this respect. X-ray examinations could also provide information about the painting technique and the material used.
In the field of determining the authenticity of Modigliani's works, the 1981 Paris retrospective made a significant contribution. During the preparations, criteria were established for assessing Modigliani's approach and the signature.
In addition, the authenticity of Modigliani's works was proven using the provenance principle, for example for the portrait Portrait Jacques Lipchitz and his Wife. It was acquired from a reliable source by private collectors Frederic Clay and Helen Birch Bartlett, and its creation was personally confirmed by Lipchitz. After that it was given directly to the Art Institute of Chicago.
In 1984, the discovery of three alleged stone sculptures by Modigliani in a canal in Livorno caused a stir. These works he would have thrown into the waters in a fit of rage during his last stay in his hometown.
The authenticity of the sculptures was controversial among art historians. After some time, however, a group of students as well as an amateur artist announced that they had created these sculptures themselves and thrown them into the canal on the occasion of Amedeo Modigliani's 100th birthday.
Amedeo Modigliani's Reception
Literature
Modigliani's life of poverty, his use of drugs, and his nude paintings were popular subjects of literary reception. A particularly common motif is the fantasy that Modigliani not only painted his models but also had sexual relations with them. An example of this is a novel by André Salmon that takes Amedeo Modigliani as its subject.
In one scene, a model is undressing, and with each new pose, Modigliani reminds her of an art historical model. This impresses him as much as the sight of the naked girl, so that he does not begin painting immediately, but first has sexual intercourse with her. In depicting this incident, Salmon equates the gaze of man with the gaze of the artist Modigliani in a sophisticated way.
In Ken Follett's novel The Modigliani Scandal, art student Dee comes across the trail of an unknown painting by Modigliani while researching her dissertation. While she and her boyfriend are following the trail, two unscrupulous treasure hunters get wind of the affair and follow on their heels in order to possibly - each for himself - be the first to get their hands on the painting.
Dee and her friend narrowly win the race. In a second storyline, two young, less successful painters fight a spectacular coup to get the thriving art trade to get involved socially with young artists. They sell the most important galleries invented, self-painted, works by Van Gogh, Munch, Picasso, etc., but later refund the money thus scammed.
In the end, however, the two are forced by Dee's friend to copy the newly discovered Modigliani twice. With these fakes, the treasure hunters are cheated and thus 'justly' punished in the eyes of the reader.
Film
In addition to the literary reception, the life of Amedeo Modigliani was also treated in three feature films. In 1958, the film Montparnasse 19 (original title: Les amants de Montparnasse) was directed by Jacques Becker. It deals with the last years of Modigliani's life, played by Gérard Philipe, in the Montparnasse district of Paris.
The film puts a special focus on his poverty and drug addiction. From 1990 comes the film Modi, in which Richard Berry portrayed the artist. The film covers Modigliani's life from his move from Livorno to Paris and continues to follow him through the First World War and post-war periods.
In 2004, Mick Davis directed the feature film Modigliani. Andy García played Modigliani in the film, which focuses on his relationship with Jeanne Hébuterne and his alleged rivalry with Picasso. This is expressed in 1919 in the competition during a contest that promises success and a large prize money to the winner. Modigliani wants to deliver a masterpiece to ensure the financial livelihood of his young family.
The film was panned in the New York Times: "The best and maybe the only use to be made of the catastrophic screen biography "Modigliani" is to serve as a textbook outline of how not to film the life of a legendary artist." (Stephen Holden: , German: "The best and maybe only use to be made of the catastrophic screen biography Modigliani is to serve as a textbook outline of how not to film the life of a legendary artist.")
In the 1968 film Balduin, the Night Spectre, starring Louis de Funès and Jean Gabin, Modigliani also finds a film mention.