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In November 2015, at an auction in Christie’s New York branch, Nu couché by Amedeo Modigliani from 1917 was sold. After 10 minutes of the auction, Chinese businessman Liu Yiqian became the lucky buyer. The painting cost only $ 170 million. It is an inseparable case when, after many years, the work reaches the peak of popularity and is placed at the forefront of the most expensive paintings of all time, while its author died undervalued, in poverty. He is not the only artist whose life has been filled with a colorful and imaginative legend that influences the perception of his works. Undoubtedly, Modigliani’s work and the fate of him and his beloved Jeanne blend into a fascinating whole.
From an Italian Middle-Class House to the Pubs of Parisian Bohemian
Of Italian descent with Jewish roots, Amedeo Modigliani fell ill with typhus as an adolescent, and during this serious illness he had a revelation about his future profession. He decided to become an artist. Consequently, the young man studied for several years, despite the family’s financial problems, at art academies in his home town of Livorno, Florence and Venice. Ultimately, however, in 1906 he decided to live in the heart of the artistic avant-garde – in Paris.
Soon, he became one of the more expressive figures of the bohemian Montmartre and Montparnasse, a good friend of Pablo Picasso, Maurice Utrillo, Chaim Soutine, Max Jocob, Moïse Kisling, Constantin Brâncuși, Jean Cocteau and many other creators of the new face of art. He commemorated them in his paintings, highlighting the most important features of the portrayed in an extremely accurate manner.
Although he spent long hours with his friends, not avoiding alcohol and drugs of various kinds (which had a profound effect on his health, already ruined by tuberculosis), he remained a bit aloof. For although he lost himself more and more in the bohemian lifestyle, he was still distinguished by the bourgeois trait of a dandy, which, moreover, was remembered as something that added a special charm to his personality.
Amedeo Modigliani – “the Last True Man of the Bohemian”
Beatrice Hastings, an American writer with which a turbulent relationship connected him, not without reason called him “pig and pearl”. On the one hand, Modigliani led a wandering lifestyle, squandered his last money, made debts which he repaid with paintings, did not care for his health, committed all sorts of excesses, and drowned out his lack of self-confidence and doubts with stimulants. On the other hand, he exemplified his deeply hidden idealism and sensitivity on canvas and in stone (for several years he devoted himself to sculpture). Undoubtedly, he used his skills – he worked like crazy, and… he made women fall in love with him.
He was able to completely get lost in life to present himself as full of romanticism, attracting beauty and intellect, a well-raised man. Anna Achmatowa, a Russian poet, also did not resist his charm. Their affectionate romance lasted for several months. In addition, many young women, models, known and unknown by name, passed through the artist’s atelier, with whom Modigliani slept, whom he sometimes immortalized in his paintings and to whom he willingly gave his works. Most of these souvenirs of temporary sensual raptures are, unfortunately, irretrievably lost…
At the end of his short and turbulent life, Amedeo Modigliani met a girl who, as it turned out, created with him the most lasting, but also the most dramatic relationship, although the artist had no way of hearing about its tragic end.
Destiny with the Face of an Angel
Jeanne Hébuterne was quite a talented student of painting, younger than Modigliani by 14 years, according to the few preserved paintings of her. As if in spite of her upbringing in a traditional Catholic family, she was attracted to the life of artists, fascinated by their work, not frightened by immorality and the uncertainty of existence.
When they got to know each other in 1917, the feelings between them were so intense that young Jeanne, against her parents’ will, soon stayed with Amedeo in his studio made available to the lovers by Leopold Zborowski. It is worth mentioning that this Pole was Modigliani’s art dealer and devoted mentor. On many occasions, he supported him financially and even paid him a fixed salary so that the painter could work on commissions.
The portraits of Zborowski and his wife, as well as their friend Lunia Czechowska and Jeanne Hébuterne, show everything that distinguishes Modigliani’s work. Eye spindles filled with blue, geometric features, ovals, curves and roundness emphasized with a strong line. Associations with African and Celtic art, but also with ancient art, Parmigianino Mannerism, Cubists, Fauvists are self-imposed. However, Modigliani does not fit into any trend, he creates his own separate style.
His career is developing reluctantly. Although he happens to participate in group exhibitions, his only solo show, will almost immediately be shut down amidst scandal. Because of the exhibition of too bold acts. The ones that will be sold for fabulous sums of money after a century.
Modigliani, overjoyed by the feeling, spoke beautifully of Jeanne: “an angel with a serious face.” She attracted attention with her mysteriousness – reticent, with pale skin and thick chestnut hair. From them it was called “Noix de coco” – coconut. With her subtle Pre-Raphaelite beauty, swan neck (she had an anatomical defect) and green eyes, she was a dream model. For this she has been portrayed many times. Treated like a true Italian wife, she did not pose for nudes. In fact, she never became one, although the artist promised her in writing. Her character was perhaps soft and depressive, but not weak. She consciously persisted with the brawling, frustrated, heavy addict drinking through every payment for the already rarely sold paintings of her beloved.
She withdrew from artistic activity, yet designing clothing and jewelry, and eventually devoted herself to caring for the increasingly ill Modigliani and her daughter, who was born in the second year of their relationship. Their next child was soon to be born.
Together Towards the End
In early 1920, Jeanne was in her last month of pregnancy. Amedeo was coming to the end of his life. On January 24, Modigliani was taken to the hospital after losing consciousness and died. Plunged into despair, Jeanne survived her beloved for two days. She was not watched over. At night she jumped from the window of an apartment building, dying along with her unborn child. Her painting La suicida turned out to be somewhat prophetic.
Modigliani was given a beautiful funeral at Père-Lachaise by his friends. Jeanne was buried quietly by relatives in a remote cemetery. It wasn’t until ten years later that the Hébuterne family agreed to let their daughter join the love of her life.
Text: Apolonia Filonik – a graduate in art history and Italian studies, effectively combining her interests as a translator and author of texts on the subject of art, tourism and philology. She is interested in transboundary phenomena in literature and art. Her favorite place is Grand Theater in Warsaw, and in her free time she practices dolce vita and dance.
English Translation: Natalia Chojnowska
Illustrations:
Illustration 1:https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_couch%C3%A9#/media/Plik:Modigliani_-_Nu_couch%C3%A9.jpg
Illustration 2:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Salmon#/media/File:Modigliani,_Picasso_and_Andr%C3%A9_Salmon.jpg
Illustration 3:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amedeo_modigliani,_ritratto_di_leopold_zborowski,_1916-19,_02.JPG
Illustration 4:https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani#/media/Plik:Amedeo_Modigliani_02
Illustration 5:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/La_suicida_-_Jeanne_H%C3%A9buterne.jpg
Polish version here
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