Amedeo Modigliani portraits. Amedeo Modigliani paintings

P. Picasso

Outstanding Italian painter and sculptor. Born July 12, 1884 in Livorno. After studying at the painting school in Livorno with G. Micheli, in 1902 Modigliani entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, and a little later - the Academy in Venice.

At the beginning of 1906 he arrived in Paris, where he began searching for a modern artistic language. Experienced the influence of P. Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, P. Picasso, Fauvism and Cubism, but eventually developed his own style, which is characterized by rich and dense colors.

In November 1907, Modigliani met Dr. Paul Alexandre, who rented a studio for him and became the first collector of his work. The artist became a member of the Independent group and exhibited his works in their salon in 1908 and 1910.

Acquaintance with the sculptor Constantin Brancusi in 1909 played a fundamental role in the development of Modigliani's sculptural creativity. Modigliani received support from Brancusi and valuable advice. During these years, Modigliani was mainly engaged in sculpting and studying works of classical antiquity, Indian and African sculpture. In 1912 he exhibited seven sculptural works at the Autumn Salon.

With the outbreak of World War I, many of Modigliani's friends left Paris. The artist was depressed by changes in life, unemployment, and poverty. At this time he met the English poet Beatrice Hastings, with whom he lived for two years. Modigliani was friendly with such by different artists like Picasso, Chaim Soutine and Maurice Utrillo, as well as with collectors and business people– Paul Guillaume and Leopold Zborowski. The latter became the artist's patron and supported his work.

During these years, Modigliani returned to painting and created perhaps his most significant works. The abstractness inherent in his works was a consequence of the study of the art of ancient civilizations and the Italian primitive, as well as the influence of his Cubist friends; at the same time, his works are distinguished by amazing subtlety psychological characteristics. Later, the formal side of his work becomes more and more simple and classical, reduced to a combination of graphic and color rhythms.

In 1917, Modigliani, at that time already very ill and prone to alcoholism, met Jeanne Hebuterne, who became his companion in the last years of his life. The following year, Zborovsky organized a solo exhibition of the artist at the Bertha Weil Gallery. She was not successful, but caused a scandal with several nude images: they were considered indecent, and at the request of the police the paintings were removed. Nevertheless, some French and foreign collectors showed interest in Modigliani's work. In 1918, the artist went to the Cote d'Azur for rest and treatment and stayed there for some time, continuing to work hard. Modigliani died shortly after returning to Paris, on January 24, 1920. The next morning, Jeanne Hebuterne committed suicide.

Modigliani's works combine purity and sophistication of style, symbolism and humanism, a pagan sense of completeness and unbridled joy of life and a pathetic experience of the torment of an always restless conscience.

On July 12, 1884, the artist Amadeo Modigliani was born. "Amateur" tells the story and interesting facts from his life.

Amedeo Modigliani (Modigliani, Amedeo) (1884−1920), outstanding Italian painter and sculptor. Born July 12, 1884 in Livorno. After studying at the painting school in Livorno with G. Micheli, in 1902 Modigliani entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, and a little later - the Academy in Venice.

At the beginning of 1906 he arrived in Paris, where he began searching for a modern artistic language. He was influenced by P. Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, P. Picasso, Fauvism and Cubism, but eventually developed his own style, which is characterized by rich and dense colors.

Modigliani is related to the philosopher Baruch Spinoza

Acquaintance with the sculptor Constantin Brancusi in 1909 played a fundamental role in the development of Modigliani's sculptural creativity. Modigliani received support and valuable advice from Brancusi. During these years, Modigliani was mainly engaged in sculpting and studying works of classical antiquity, Indian and African sculpture. In 1912 he exhibited seven sculptural works at the Autumn Salon.

The artist was close to death twice before the age of 16

With the outbreak of World War I, many of Modigliani's friends left Paris. The artist was depressed by changes in life, unemployment, and poverty. At this time he met the English poet Beatrice Hastings, with whom he lived for two years. Modigliani was friendly with such diverse artists as Picasso, Chaim Soutine and Maurice Utrillo, as well as with collectors and business people - Paul Guillaume and Leopold Zborowski. The latter became the artist's patron and supported his work.

During these years, Modigliani returned to painting and created perhaps his most significant works. The abstractness inherent in his works was a consequence of the study of the art of ancient civilizations and the Italian primitive, as well as the influence of his Cubist friends; at the same time, his works are distinguished by the amazing subtlety of psychological characterization. Later, the formal side of his work becomes more and more simple and classical, reduced to a combination of graphic and color rhythms.

By family legend, the Modigliani family included Saint Francis of Assisi

Modigliani knew hundreds of lines from Leopardi and Dante by heart

Interesting facts

1. Modigliani is related to the philosopher Baruch Spinoza through his great-grandmother Regina Spinoza.

2. Modigliani's parents were Sephardic Jews. This ethnic group got its name after being expelled from Spain and Portugal (the word Sephardi means "Spaniard" in modern Hebrew).

3. Amedeo Modigliani was well educated. He knew history and literature very well, and could recite poetry from memory for hours.

4. Laurie's mother's sister loved her little nephew Amedeo very much. She took him in with her from childhood and developed him in every possible way. Laurie wrote philosophical articles for various magazines, was interested in spiritualism and erotic poetry, and promoted the ideas of Nietzsche and the Russian anarchist Kropotkin. Her hobbies were close to Modigliani.

5. The artist was close to death twice before the age of 16. First, the boy suffered from pleurisy, which triggered the tuberculosis process, and then from typhus.

6. As a child, during a fever caused by typhus, Amedeo, delirious, told his mother about his desire to become an artist. She wrote about this in her diary.

7. Introducing himself, Amedeo said: “Modigliani. Jew". He was worried about his nationality, but chose the tactics of self-affirmation rather than renunciation.

8. Modi, as he was often called by friends and colleagues, is phonetically the same as French word maudit, which translated means “cursed.”

9. According to family tradition, the maternal family included St. Francis of Assisi.

10. Modigliani knew by heart hundreds of lines by Leopardi and Dante, the poetry of Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine. He avidly read Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, and adored Gabriele D’Annunzio.

11. He also recited “Thus Spake Zarathustra” and “The Songs of Maldoror” by heart.

12. Modigliani read “The Songs of Maldoror” with Akhmatova, which, as she recalled, he “constantly carried in his pocket.” In Russia, the work of this author, Lautreamont, was unknown at that time.

13. Akhmatova called the film “Montparnasse-19” “vulgar.”

14. Modigliani had a son, whom he abandoned before the boy was born.

15. Once on Christmas Eve, Modigliani dressed up as Santa Claus and handed out free hashish lozenges at the entrance to the Rotunda cafe. Unaware of the presence of a “secret filling,” cafe visitors happily swallowed them. That evening, the intoxicated bohemia almost destroyed the Rotunda: representatives of the highest creative circles The lamps of Paris were broken and rum was poured on the ceiling and walls.

16. Modigliani’s works became known and in demand immediately after his death - they began to be bought up already during his funeral. During his lifetime, unlike Picasso or Chagall, he was completely unknown.

He died in poverty so that his descendants could compete with their fortunes to add paintings to their collections. famous master. Name Amedeo Modigliani is shrouded in legends and fraught with scandals. Noise and foam often accompany the fate of true geniuses. This is what happened with this great painter.

Genius since childhood

Famous Italian artist Jewish origin Amedeo Modigliani was born in Livorno in 1884. His father declared himself bankrupt when his son was very young, and Amedeo's mother, Eugenia, took full care of the family.

"Boy in a Blue Shirt" 1919
The woman literally idolized her youngest son. He was sickly and therefore loved by his mother even more. Amedeo responded to Eugenia with reality and, as in most Jewish families, was too attached to his mother.

Eugenia Modigliani is trying to ensure that her beloved baby receives a comprehensive education. When Amedeo turned 14, she sent him to the school of the artist Micheli. The teenager literally goes crazy about painting and paints all day and night.

However, the health of young Modigliani is still weak, and in order to treat him, in 1900 Eugenia takes her son to Capri, visiting Rome, Venice, and Florence along the way. There young artist gets acquainted with the paintings of the greatest Italian masters and even takes several lessons from Botticelli himself.

"Pink Blouse" 1919
Two years later, Amedeo begins to study the Florentine school of painting, and then takes lessons from Venetian masters.

Thus, learning from great examples, Modigliani began to develop his own technique.

Bohemian Paris

Having worked in Italy for several years, at some point Amedeo realizes that he does not have enough air. We need new soil, new space in order to grow and move forward. And he moves to France.

Modigliani arrives in Paris in 1906 with no money and only painting supplies. He wanders around cheap furnished apartments, drinks a lot, goes on carouses and, as they say, even tries drugs, which does not prevent him from strictly monitoring his appearance. Modigliani was always impeccably dressed, even if this meant he had to wash his shirt every night. It’s no wonder that women are crazy about the bohemian but poor artist.

Akhmatova and Modigliani

Acquaintance with the great Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova opened new stage in the work of Amedeo. Akhmatova came to Paris with her husband Nikolai Gumilev. But this does not stop the artist. Amedeo begins to court Anna and literally idolizes her. She calls her the Egyptian queen and draws a lot.

"The Artist's Wife" 1918
True, only one portrait of the master has survived to this day, which Akhmatova considered her main wealth. Two more pencil drawings of a nude Akhmatova were found not so long ago.

The rest of Modigliani's paintings perished or disappeared after the revolution.

Modigliani and Hastings

After breaking up with Akhmatova, Modigliani fell into depression, from which a new relationship brought him out. Journalist and literary critic, traveler and poet Beatrice Hastings met the artist in 1914.

They both turned out to be so emotional and hot that the whole of Paris watched their whirlwind romance with curiosity. Quarrels, scenes of jealousy, jumping out of windows, fights and equally violent reconciliation. This love drained both of them.

"Jeanne Hebuterne in a Red Shawl" 1917
Beatrice tried to wean Amedeo from alcohol, but she was not successful. The scandals became more and more prolonged. And in the end, the woman decides to break off the relationship.

However, this period is considered the most fruitful in terms of creativity. Critics call paintings inspired by the muse Beatrice the best in creative heritage Modigliani.

Last love

An artist cannot live without love. A cold heart is incapable of creativity. And so, in 1917, he meets a student named Zhanna, whom he first makes his model, and then falls madly in love with her.

Jeanne's parents rebelled against such a relationship. A Jew leading a riotous lifestyle seems to them to be the worst match for their daughter that they can think of. However, the couple is happy. So that their happiness is not interfered with, they leave for Nice. There Zhanna finds out that she is pregnant. Modigliani invites her to legalize the relationship, but the sharply deteriorating state of health and worsening tuberculosis forces her to postpone these plans.

“Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne” 1918
The birth of a daughter, who was named after Amedeo's beloved Jeanne, makes her forget about her problems for a while. However, not for long.

In 1919 Amedeo and Jeanne and her daughter return to Paris. The artist was very bad. Tuberculosis is progressing. Amedeo ends up in a clinic for the poor.

At this time, his agent begins to slowly sell the master's paintings. Interest in the painting of Amedeo Modigliani began to awaken. However, the artist will no longer know about this.

He died in complete poverty in a homeless shelter, and his friend Zhanna, having learned about this, jumped out of the window out of grief. At this time, she was carrying her second child, Amedeo.

All of Paris took to the streets to see off the genius on his last journey. His girlfriend was modestly buried the next day, recognizing her rights as the wife of the deceased artist.

"Girl in a Black Apron" 1918
In the end, Jeanne’s parents also accepted this fate for their daughter, ten years later agreeing to rebury the girl’s ashes in Modigliani’s grave. So after death, the lovers were united with each other forever.

Well, their daughter grew up and devoted her whole life to studying the creativity of her parents.

The special world of Amedeo Modigliani

The world of Amedeo Modigliani is a man-universe. His heroes are almost gods. They are beautiful in their external, physical beauty. But this is a very unusual beauty. Sometimes it seems that the characters’ characters break out of their corporeal shell and begin to live their own separate lives, they are so vividly written.

"Oscar Meshchaninov" 1917
Modigliani paints passers-by, acquaintances, children. He is not interested in surroundings - people are important to him.

He often paid for food with these paintings. And ironically, years after their death, they were worth fortunes. During his lifetime, the genius was not understood, and Modigliani, in fact, always remained incredibly lonely, an unrecognized genius.

Unfortunately, this often happens to real creators: their fame reaches them only after death.

The famous artist Amedeo Modigliani was born in 1884 in Livorno, in what was then called the Kingdom of Italy. His parents were Sephardic Jews and the family had four children. Amedeo or Iedidia (that was his real name) was the smallest. He was destined to become one of the most famous artists of the end of the century before last and the beginning of the last century, a prominent representative expressionist art.

For his very short life, and he lived only 35 years, the artist managed to reach heights that were inaccessible to many other people who lived to old age. He burned very brightly, despite the lung disease that consumed him. At the age of 11, the boy suffered from pleurisy and then typhus. This is a very serious disease, from which many did not survive. But Amedeo survived, although it cost him his health. Physical weakness did not prevent his genius from developing, although it brought a handsome young man to the grave.

Modigliani lived his childhood and youth in. In this country, the very environment and numerous monuments helped the study ancient art. The future artist’s sphere of interests also included the art of the Renaissance, which helped him in further development and largely influenced his perception of reality.

The time when Modigliani was forming as a person and as an artist gave the world many talented masters. During this period, the attitude towards the art of the past was revised, and new ones were formed. artistic movements and directions. Having moved in 1906 to, future master found himself in the thick of seething events.

Like the masters of the Renaissance, Modigliani was primarily interested in people, not objects. Only a few landscapes survived in his creative heritage, while other genres of painting did not interest him at all. In addition, until 1914 he devoted himself almost entirely exclusively to sculpture. In Paris, Modigliani met and became friends with numerous bohemians, including Maurice Utrillo and Ludwig Meidner.

His works periodically contain references to the art of the Renaissance, as well as the undoubted influence of African traditions in art. Modigliani always stood aloof from all recognizable fashion trends; his work is a real phenomenon in the history of art. Unfortunately, very little documentary evidence and stories have survived about the artist’s life that can be 100% trusted. During his lifetime, the master was not understood and not appreciated at all; his paintings were not sold. But after his death in 1920 from meningitis caused by tuberculosis, the world realized that it had lost a genius. If he could see it, he would appreciate the irony of fate. Paintings, which during his lifetime did not bring him even a piece of bread, beginning of XXI centuries went under the hammer for fabulous sums, amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Truly, to become great, one must die in poverty and obscurity.

Modigliani's sculptures have much in common with African ones, but are by no means simple copies. This is a rethinking of a special ethnic style superimposed on modern realities. The faces of his statues are simple and extremely stylized, while they amazingly retain their individuality.

Modigliani's paintings are usually classified as expressionism, but nothing in his work can be interpreted unambiguously. He was one of the first to bring emotion to paintings with nudes women's bodies– nude. They contain both eroticism and sex appeal, but not abstract, but completely real, ordinary. Modigliani’s canvases depict not ideal beauties, but living women with bodies devoid of perfection, which is why they are attractive. It was these paintings that began to be perceived as the pinnacle of the artist’s creativity, his unique achievement.

Modigliani, who lived and died in Montparnasse, a stranger who lost contact with his homeland and found in France the true home of his art, is perhaps the most modern of our modern artists. He managed to express not only a keen sense of time, but also the time-independent truth of humanity. To be a modern artist essentially means to creatively convey the awe of one’s era, to express its living and deep psychology. To do this, it is not enough to dwell on the external appearance of things; for this you need to be able to reveal their soul. This is exactly what Modigliani, the artist of Montparnasse, an artist belonging to the whole world, was able to do superbly.”1

1 (Quote from the text published in the magazine "Monparnasse". Paris, 1928, No. 50.)

What can be added to these beautiful words of Modigliani’s sensitive, honest-minded contemporary? Is it just that his work remains the same today for us, for everyone who cherishes true humanity in art, captured in the images of high and passionate poetry

Amedeo Modigliani

“Should I tell you what qualities, in my opinion, define real art?” the very old Renoir once asked one of his future biographers, Walter Pach. “It should be indescribable and inimitable... A work of art should swoop down on the viewer, embrace It is entirely possible to take it with you. Through a work of art, the artist conveys his passion, this is the current that he emits and with which he draws the viewer into his obsession." It seems to me that, in any case, such a definition is applicable to some works of the mature Modigliani.

Self Portrait - 1919 - Painting - oil on canvas

Italian painter, sculptor; belonged to the "Paris School". Grace of linear silhouettes, the finest color relationships, heightened expressiveness emotional states create a special world of portrait images.

The love between Amedeo Modigliani and Jeanne Hebuterne is admirable. Zhanna loved her Modi with all her heart and supported her in everything. Even when he spent hours painting nude models, she had nothing against it. Modigliani, stubborn and hot-tempered, was charmed by the soft calm of his beloved. It seems that just recently he was breaking dishes during noisy quarrels with Beatrice Hastings, just recently he abandoned Simone Thiroux and her child, and then... He was in love. The fate of the poor, tuberculosis-stricken, unknown artist decided to give him a farewell gift. She gave him true love.

Jeanne Hebuterne - 1917-1918 - Private collection - Painting - fresco

Coffee (Portrait Jeanne Hébuterne) - 1919 - Barnes Foundation, Lincoln University, Merion, PA, USA - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne - 1919 - Israel Museum - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne (also known as In Front of a Door) - 1919 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas - Height 129.54 cm (51 in), Width 81.6 cm (32.13 in)

Jeanne Hebuterne in a Hat - 1919 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne in a Large Hat (also known as Portrait of Woman in Hat) - 1918 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas Height 55 cm (21.65 in), Width 38 cm (14.96 in)

Jeanne Hebuterne in a Scarf - 1919 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1917 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1918 - Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York, NY - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1919 PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne Seated in an Armchair - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne Seated in Profile - 1918 - The Barnes Foundation - Painting - oil on c

Portrait of Jeanne Hebutern - 1918 - Yale University Art Gallery - New Haven, CT - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne - Amedeo Modigliani's Love. That's right, Love with a capital. The day after Amedeo's death, she, unable to bear the grief, jumped out of the window.

His creative life was, in essence, instantaneous, it all fit into ten to twelve years of furiously intense work, and this “period,” oversaturated with unfinished searches, turned out to be tragically unique.

At the end of his biography it is customary to put a bold point: finally, Modigliani found himself and expressed himself to the end. And he burned out in mid-sentence, his creative flight was cut short catastrophically, he, too, turned out to be one of those who “did not live up to theirs in the world, did not love theirs on earth” and, most importantly, did not accomplish anything. Even on the basis of what he did undeniably absolutely in this one and only"period" that continues to live for us today - who can say where, in what new and, perhaps, completely unexpected sides, into what unknown depths would this passionate talent, yearning for some final, all-exhaustive truth, rush? There is only one thing we can be sure of: that he would not have stopped at what he had already achieved.

Let's take a closer look at it, let's try to peer through the inevitable imperfection of any book reproductions. Slowly, one after another, let us unfold these portraits and drawings in front of us, so unusual, strange and at first glance monotonous, and then increasingly attracting us with some meaningful internal diversity, some deep, not always immediately revealed inner meaning. You will probably be amazed, and perhaps even captivated, by the passionate insistence of this poetic language, and it will not be so easy for you to get rid of what he suggests or vaguely whispers or suggests.

If you look carefully, the first impressions of the one-facedness and monotony of these images will easily be destroyed. The more you peer into these faces and outlines, the more you are overcome by the feeling of the engrossing depths that lurk either under the transparently clear, or under the displaced, crumpled and as if deliberately clouded surface of the image. In the very repetition of techniques (on closer examination there will be quite a few of them) you will feel the artist’s intense striving for something most important to him, and perhaps the most secret in all these people. You will feel that they were not chosen by chance, that they seem to be drawn to the same magnet. And perhaps it will seem to you that all of them, while remaining themselves, found themselves involved in the same lyrical inner world - a restless, untidy, sensitively anxious world, full of unresolved questions and secret melancholy.

Modigliani writes and draws almost exclusively only portraits. It has long been said that even his famous nudes and nudes are psychologically “portrait” in their own way. In some reference books and encyclopedias he is called a “portrait painter”, primarily and by vocation. But what kind of strange portrait painter is this, who only chooses his models himself and does not accept any orders, except perhaps from his own brother, a free artist, or from a congenial art lover? And who will order his portrait from him if he does not first give up all hope of a direct resemblance?

Blonde Nude - 1917 - Painting oil on canvas

He is a born, incorrigible distorter of the obvious and familiar, this eccentric who has doomed himself to an eternal search for unexpected truths. And it’s a strange thing: behind the roughly emphasized convention, we can suddenly discover in his paintings something absolutely real, and behind the deliberate simplification - something vitally complex and poetically sublime.

Here in some portrait there is an incredible arrow-shaped nose and an unnaturally long neck, and for some reason there are no eyes, no pupils, instead of them there are small ovals, as if by a spoiled child, shaded or painted over with something bluish-greenish. But there is a gaze, and sometimes a very intent one; and there is a character, and a mood, and an inner life, and an attitude towards the surrounding life. And sometimes even something more: something that secretly excites, that fills the soul of the artist himself, in some inscrutable way connecting him with the model and dictating to him the immutability, necessity, uniqueness of these, and not any other means of artistic expression .

Lunia Czechovska - 1919 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

In another portrait, nearby, the eyes will be wide open and extremely expressive in the smallest details. But, perhaps, the simplicity of the palette, “excessive” definiteness or, conversely, “blurred” lines OR some other “conventionality” will be even more clearly reflected. In itself, this does not mean anything for Modigliani - in either case. This is important only in general, in the poetic discovery of the image.

Jeanne Hebuterne with Hat and Necklace - 1917 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas

But here is a drawing in which, it seems, there is nothing complete, in which what is familiar to our eyes is absent, and for some reason the unexpected and optional becomes the main thing. A drawing that seemed to appear “out of nothing,” out of elusiveness, out of thin air. But this amazingly free drawing by Modigliani is neither a whim nor a vague, careless hint. He is the subtlest, but he is also the most defined. In its grammatical understatement there is an almost tangible completeness of the poetically expressed, poured out image. And here, in the drawings, as in picturesque portraits Modigliani, again just something from external resemblance with a model, and here he is a dubious “portrait painter”, and here the nature is transformed by the imperious will of the artist, which is not directly related to her, by his secret and impatient searches, gentle or impetuous touches. As if having peered into the one who is now in front of him, in one fell swoop having dealt with him almost into a caricature or raising him almost to a symbol, he will immediately throw this model of his on an irreparably unfinished canvas, on a half-crumpled piece of paper, and some force will draw him further, to another, to others, to new searches for Man.

Your own new form, Modigliani needed his own writing techniques due to his directness and sincerity. And that's all. He is an anti-formalist by his spiritual nature, and it is surprising how rarely he contradicts himself in this sense, living in Paris in an era of frenzied enthusiasm for form as such - form for form's sake. He never consciously puts her between himself and the life around him. That is why he is so averse to all abstractionism. Jean Cocteau was one of the first to astutely see this: 1 “Modigliani does not elongate faces, does not emphasize their asymmetry, does not gouge out one of a person’s eyes for some reason, does not lengthen the neck. All this comes together naturally in his soul. This is how he painted us at tables in “Rotonde,” he drew endlessly, this is how he perceived us, judged us, loved us, or refuted us. His drawing was a silent conversation. It was a dialogue between his line and our lines.”2

1(The translation of this text and all French, English, and German texts cited hereinafter is made by the author.)
2(Jean Cocteau. Modigliani. Paris, Hazan, 1951.)

The world he creates is amazingly real. Through the unusualness and sometimes even sophistication of some of his techniques, the immutability of the real existence of his images emerges. He settled them on earth, and since then they have lived among us, easily recognizable from the inside, even though we have never seen those who served as his model. He found his way, his special ability to introduce people to those whom he chose, pulled out of the crowd, from the environment, from his time, whether he loved them or not. He made us want to understand their longing and dreams, their hidden pain or contempt, downtroddenness or pride, challenge or humility. Even the most “conventional” and “simplified” of his portraits are incredibly close to us, directed at us by the artist. This is their special impact. Usually no one introduces anyone to anyone this way: it’s very immediate and very intimate.

Of course, he is no revolutionary - neither in life nor in art. And the social in his work is not at all equivalent to the revolutionary. An open direct challenge to hostile, contrary to his nature, phenomena of the surrounding life is rarely found in his work. And yet, Cocteau is right when he says that this artist was never indifferent to what surrounded him, that he always “judged, loved or refuted.” Not only in the famous sarcastic, almost poster-like " Married couple", but also on other canvases and in a number of drawings one cannot help but feel how Modigliani hates well-fed complacency, cheap snobbery, conspicuous or skillfully veiled vulgarity, and all kinds of bourgeoisism.

Bride and Groom (also known as The Newlyweds) - 1915-1916 - oil on canvas

But understanding and sympathy clearly prevail over judgment and refutation in his work. Love prevails. With what heightened, subtle sensitivity he captures and transmits to us human dramas, with what careful obscurity it penetrates into the very depths of hidden melancholy, inescapable and stubbornly hidden from indifferent glances. How he knows how to hear the silent, unspoken reproach of an offended, disadvantaged childhood, a deceived, failed youth. There is a lot of all this, for another lover of thoughtless optimism, perhaps even too much in the gallery of people closest to Modigliani. But what to do if he sees this, first of all, and most often in “ordinary” people, in people not from “society”, to whom he is always so drawn: in the youth of the urban and rural lower classes, maids and concierges, models and milliners, delivery boys and apprentices, and sometimes among the women of the Parisian sidewalks. This does not mean at all that Modigliani is chained to suffering alone, that he is an artist of hopelessly resigned grief. No, he greedily catches and knows how to make the real power of human dignity, and active, sensitive human kindness, and persistent spiritual integrity shine through. Especially - in artists and poets, and among them - especially in those who, with silent persistence, gritting their teeth, walked the hard path of rejected, but not bowed talent. And no wonder. After all, this was his path too - the path of “a short life, to the fullest,” which he once prophesied for himself.

The Pretty Housewife - 1915 - The Barnes Foundation - Painting - oil on canvas
Pretty Housewife, 1915

Serving Woman (also known as La Fantesca) - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas
The Maid (La Frantesca)

However, even in these years and later, Modigliani prefers to paint not the well-fed Parisian bourgeoisie, the “masters of life,” but those who are spiritually close to him - Max Jacob, Picasso, Cendrars, Zborovsky, Lipchitz, Diego Rivera, Kisliig, sculptors Laurent and Meshchaninov, the kind Doctor Devrain in a military jacket, the actor Gaston Modot on vacation, in an open-collared shirt, some cute gray-bearded provincial notary with a pipe in his hand, some young peasant with heavy hands unaccustomed to rest on his knees, countless of his friends from Parisian lower classes.

Portrait of Max Jacob - 1916 - Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen - Dusseldorf - Painting - oil on canvas

In 1897, Max Jacob moved to Paris. He searched for himself for a long time, one activity quickly gave way to another. Jacob worked as a reporter, a street magician, a clerk, and even a carpenter. He had a special artistic talent: he was well versed in painting, wrote critical articles. Max Jacob often visited exhibitions, where he met Pablo Picasso, and later Modigliani.
Jacob's friends considered him an ambiguous person, an inventor and dreamer, a lover of mysticism.
Many artists depicted Jacob in their paintings, but Modigliani’s portrait became the most famous.

Portrait of Pablo Picasso - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on cardboard

Modigliani first met Picasso when he arrived in Paris in 1906. Their paths crossed often during the First World War: when most of their mutual friends went to the front with the French army, they remained in Paris. Modigliani, although not French, like Picasso, wanted to go to the front, but was refused for health reasons.
The usual meeting place for Picasso and Modigliani was the Rotunda cafe, one of the most popular establishments among bohemians. The artists spent hours there in intimate conversations. Picasso admired the sense of style that was inherent in Modigliani, and even said once that Modigliani was almost the only one he knew knowledgeable in fashion.
Both artists were partial to African art, which subsequently affected their work.

The scriptwriters of the film “Modigliani” point to supposedly strong competition between the artists, but the memories of friends do not confirm this. Picasso and Modigliani were not best friends, however, the idea of their rivalry is invented to provide contrast to the storyline.

1917 Portrait de Blaise Cendrars. 61x50 cm Rome, Collection Gualino

Portrait of Leopold Zborowski - 1917-18 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Amedeo Modigliani met Zborovsky at a difficult time. It was 1916, the war, and few people bought paintings even by famous artists. Nobody cared about young talents; Modigliani earned nothing and practically starved.
The Polish poet Leopold Zborowski was inspired by Modigliani's work immediately when he first saw the paintings. They became close friends. Zborovsky believed so much in Modigliani’s great future that he vowed to make him a famous artist at all costs. Having allocated the largest room in his house as a studio for the artist, he wandered tirelessly all over Paris in the hope of at least selling something. But, unfortunately, the paintings were rarely sold. Zborowski's wife, Hanka, patiently cared for Amedeo, turning a blind eye to his difficult character.
Zborovsky’s efforts were ultimately not in vain, and in 1917 he managed to arrange an exhibition for Modigliani in the small gallery of Bertha Weil, which had long liked his paintings.
The exhibition, unfortunately, could not be called successful.

Leopold Zborowski - 1919 - Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo. Painting - oil on canvas

Modigliani knows how to poeticize the appearance of a person whom he loves and honors, knows how to elevate him above the prose of everyday life: there is something majestic in inner peace, in dignity and simplicity, in the very femininity of his “Anna Zborovskaya” from the collection of the Roman Gallery contemporary art. A lush white collar, raised high on the right and back, as if slightly supporting the model’s head against a dark red background, not without reason for some of art critics seemed almost an attribute of Spanish queens.

Anna (Hanka) Zborowska - Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna - Rome (Italy)

Anna (Hanka) Zabrowska - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Anna Zborowska - 1917 - Museum of Modern Art - New York - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Anna Zborowska - 1919 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

1917 Jacques Lipchitz et sa femme 81x54 cm Chicago, Art Institute

Portrait of Diego Rivera - 1914 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

At the end of June 1911, the Mexican painter and politician Diego Rivera arrived in Paris. Soon he met Modigliani. They were often seen together in cafes: they drank and sometimes became rowdy, hurling obscene phrases at passers-by.
During this period, Rivera wrote "Catalan Landscape", which determined a new direction in his work: he discovered a completely new technique.

Portrait de Diego Rivera - 1914 - Huile sur Toile. 100x81 cm Collection Particulière

1915 Portrait de Moïse Kisling Milan, Collection Emilio Jesi

Portrait of Henri Laurent, 1915, expressionism, Private Collection, oil on canvas

Portrait of Oscar Meistchaninoff - 1916 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Doctor Devaraigne - 1917 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait de Chaïm Soutine - 1916 - 100x65 cm Paris, Collection Particulière

Chaim Soutine moved to Paris after graduating from the School of Fine Arts in Vilnius in 1913. Jew Belarusian origin, the 10th child in an 11-child family, he could only rely on himself. During his first years, he lived in hunger and poverty, working in the “Beehive,” a hostel for poor artists, where he met Amedeo Modigliani. They struck up a very strong, but, unfortunately, short-lived friendship due to early death Modigliani.
Haim quickly developed his own technique and style of painting, and his work became a significant contribution to the development of expressionism.
Due to constant hunger, Chaim developed an ulcer. His face, framed by tousled hair, was constantly writhing in pain. But drawing was his salvation, it took him to another, magical world, in which he forgot about his empty, aching stomach.

1916 Portrait de Chaïm Soutine Huile sur Toile 92x60 cm wngoa

This is how he wrote to his friends. But no friendship can cloud the vigilance of his eye (Vlaminck remembers the authority in his gaze at the model while working). He does not forgive his friend for what he does not accept, which always remains alien to him or even causes his hostility. In such cases, Modigliani becomes ironic, if not evil. Here is Beatrice Hastings with a self-confident, capricious, arrogant expression on her face.
Beatrice Hastings had an affair with Amedeo, which lasted about 2 years.

Portrait of Beatrice Hastings - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Beatrice Hastings - 1916 - The Barnes Foundation - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Beatrice Hastings - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas 2

Beatrice Hastings Leaning on Her Elbow

Beatrice Hastings Standing by a Door

Beatrice Hastings, Seated - 1915 - Private collection

Beatrice Hastings

But bored, as if looking over people, the pretentious Paul Guillaume deliberately casually leaned on the back of his chair.

1916 Portrait de Paul Guillaume 81x54 cm Milan Civicca Galeria d"Arte Moderna

Modigliani knew Jean Cocteau very well as an unusually gifted person. He knew his brilliant, sharp mind, his multifaceted talent as a poet, artist, critic, composer of famous ballets, novelist and playwright. But at the same time, Cocteau was considered the founder of the style of “elegant bohemia”, “the inventor of fashions and ideas”, the personification of “winged craftiness”, “an acrobat of the word”, consummate master salon conversation about everything and anything. There is also something of this Cocteau in Modigliani’s portrait, where he seems to be pre-proportioned with the exaggeratedly high back and comfortable armrests of a stylish chair, all of straight lines and sharp angles - shoulders, elbows, eyebrows, even the tip of the nose: cold dandyism emanates from the adopted pose, and from the most elegant blue suit, and from the impeccable “butterfly” tie.

Portrait of Jean Cocteau - 1917 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

I do not have access to an exhaustive objective analysis of Modigliani's style. But there are some things in it general features, which probably catch the eye of every attentive viewer. One cannot help but notice, for example, how much he has, especially among more early works, unfinished - or rather, something that many other artists would probably recognize as unfinished. Sometimes it may seem like a sketch, which for some reason he does not want to develop and improve, perhaps because he values the first impression too much. Some people find this annoying; they talk about unjustified conventions, even about “inaccurate” painting. Juan Gris has an aphorism: “In general, one should strive for good painting, which is always conditional and precise, as opposed to bad painting, unconditional, but not precise” (“C”est, somme toute, faire une peinture inexacte et precise, lout le contraire de la mauvaise peinlure qui est exacle el imprecise")1.

1 (Quoted from the book: Pierre Courthion. Paris de temps nouveaux. Geneve, Skira, 1957.)

Or maybe this understatement, combined with the authority of his craftsmanship, is Modigliani’s main attractive force for us?

Lionello Venturi and a number of other researchers of his work are confident that at the heart of his stylistic originality- a line that seems to lead the color. And indeed: smooth, soft or, on the contrary, hard, rough, exaggerated, thickened, it every now and then violates reality and at the same time revives it in an unexpected, striking quality. Freely capturing planes layered on top of each other, she creates a feeling of depth, volume, “the visibility of the invisible.” She seems to bring forward this beautiful Modigliani “physicality”, the play of the finest color nuances and tints, making them breathe, pulsate, and fill with warm light from within.

1918 Portrait de Jeanne Nébuterne. 46x29 cm. ParisCollection Particulière

Elvire au col blanc - 1918 - 92x65 cm - Paris Collection - Particulière

Etude pour le portrait de Franck Burty Havilland - 1914 - Huile sur Toile. Los Angeles County Museum

Frans Hellens - 1919 - PC - oil on canvas

Giovanotto dai Capelli Rosse - 1919 - oil on canvas

Girl on a Chair (also known as Mademoiselle Huguette) - 1918 - PC - oil on canvas - Height 91.4 cm (35.98 in) Width 60.3 cm (23.74 in)

Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz - 1917 - The Art Institute of Chicago (USA) - oil on canvas

Joseph Levi - 1910 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas

Little Girl in Black Apron - 1918 - Kunstmuseum Basel - Painting - oil on canvas

In the spring of 1919, Modigliani again spent some time in Capa. Sending a postcard from there to his mother with a view, he wrote to her on April 12: “As soon as I get settled, I’ll send you the exact address.” But he soon returned to Nice, where everything lately his work was hampered by efforts to restore the missing papers. In addition, he also caught the Spanish flu there - a dangerous infectious disease, which was then rampant throughout Europe. As soon as he got out of bed, he went back to work.

The intensity of his creativity in this and the subsequent, Parisian periods is truly amazing, especially if you think about the fact that all this time he was already terminally ill, as it turned out later. How many portraits of Jeanne alone he painted then and how many drawings he made of her! And the famous "Girl in Blue", and the marvelous portraits of Germaine Survage and Madame Osterlind, and the "Nurse with a Child", which is usually called the "Gypsy", and a whole series his increasingly perfect nudes... All this was created in just a year and a half.

Little Girl in Blue - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

The Pretty Vegetable Vendor (also known as La Belle Epiciere) - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Pink Blouse - 1919 - Musee Angladon - Avignon - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait de Madame L - 1917 - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of a Girl (also known as Victoria) - 1917 Tate Modern - London - Painting - oil on canvas

Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian poet, novelist and photographer, emigrated to France in 1909. In Paris, while engaged in literary activities and moving in the circles of young artists, he met Modigliani. Like Modigliani, Cocteau and other artists, he spent his evenings at the Rotunda cafe. It took Ehrenburg a long time to unravel the mystery of Modigliani’s restless character, which he described in “Poems about Eves” of 1915:

You were sitting on a low staircase,
Modigliani.
Your cries are that of a petrel, the tricks of a monkey.
And the oily light of a lowered lamp,
And the hot hair is blue!..
And suddenly I heard the terrible Dante -
Dark words began to hum and splash out.
You threw the book
You fell and jumped
You were jumping around the hall
And the flying candles swaddled you.
O madman without a name!
You shouted - “I can do it!” I can!"
And some clear pine trees
Grew up in a burning brain.
Great creature -
You went out, cried and lay down under the lantern.
http://www.a-modigliani.ru/okruzhenie/druzya.html

Thank you for your attention! To be continued...

Text based on the book Vitaly Yakovlevich Vilenkin "Amadeo Modigliani"