Alon Zakaim Fine Art

Amadeo Modigliani was born in 1884 into a Jewish family in Livorno, Italy. In 1898 his mother enrolled him as a pupil in the studio of Micheli, the best painter in Livorno. He worked under Micheli until 1890, learning to paint landscapes, portraiture, still-lives, and nudes. Over these early years, his formal artistic instruction took place in an atmosphere deeply steeped in the study of the styles and themes of nineteenth-century Italian art.

In 1902, Modigliani enrolled in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence to develop his skills in life drawing. His enthusiasm and love of drawing from life was to stay with him for the remainder of his career.

Drawn by the activity of the avant-garde arts of Paris, Modigliani left Florence for Paris in 1906 and settled in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a commune for penniless artists in Montmartre. Even in these Bohemian surroundings, Modigliani’s radical behaviour stood out from his contemporaries. He frequently had affairs, drank heavily, and smoked hashish. While drunk he would sometimes strip himself naked at social gatherings. He was indeed the epitome of the tragic artist, creating a posthumous legend almost as well-known as that of Vincent van Gogh.

Modigliani’s social behaviour did not however affect his work. He sketched at a furious pace and often made as many as 100 drawings a day. Unfortunately, many of these works were lost, either destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them.

In his early years in Paris, Modigliani was heavily influenced by the lithographs of Toulouse Lautrec and Pablo Picasso (in his "blue period"). Later, it was the strong influence of Paul Cezanne's paintings that emerged in his work, both in his deliberate distortion of the figure and the free use of large, flat areas of colour. Eventually as he matured, Modigliani developed his own unique style that cannot be adequately categorized with any other artists.

Modigliani’s individual style suggests the influence of primitive art from Africa and Cambodia which he may have seen in the Musée de l'Homme. His paintings and sculpture portraits contain a certain resemblance to African masks or ancient Egyptian paintings, evident in their flat and mask like appearance, distinctive almond eyes, pursed mouths, twisted noses, and elongated necks. Originally seeing himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, he was encouraged to continue sculpting after the young art dealer Paul Guillaume introduced him to the sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Their consequent friendship kindled Modigliani’s interest in sculpture, in which he would continue his very personal idiom, distinguished by strong linear rhythms, simple elongated forms, and verticality. Modigliani’s sculptures mainly consist of portrait heads and the occasional full figure.

After 1915 Modigliani devoted himself entirely to painting, producing some of his best work. His interest in African masks and sculpture remained evident throughout, especially in the treatment of the sitters' faces. Despite their extreme economy of composition and neutral backgrounds, his portraits always convey a sharp sense of the sitter's personality, his subjects commonly displaying striking idealizations of feminine sexuality.

On December 3, 1917, Modigliani's first one-man exhibition opened at the Berthe Weill Gallery but the chief of the Paris police was scandalized by his nudes and forced him to close the exhibition within a few hours after its opening.

In 1920, after not hearing from him for several days, his neighbour checked on the family and found Modigliani in bed delirious and holding onto his lover, Hébuterne who was nearly nine months pregnant. They summoned a doctor, but little could be done. Modigliani was dying of tubercular meningitis. He died on January 24, 1920. There was an enormous funeral, attended by many from the artistic communities in Montmartre and Montparnasse.

Modigliani died penniless and destitute, managing only one solo exhibition in his life and giving his work away in exchange for meals in restaurants. Had he lived through the 1920s when American buyers flooded Paris, his fortunes might well have changed. Since his death his reputation has soared. Nine novels, a play, a documentary and three feature films have been devoted to his life.

Tete de jeune fille (1972)

Bronze cast

61.0 cm

£ Neg.

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