Amedeo Modigliani believed himself to be a child prodigy, chosen, especially gifted, destined to enlighten the world with his art. His contemporaries, however, thought otherwise: they perceived his preference for nude studies as a scandal and denied him the longed-for recognition. The artist escaped into alcohol and drugs, died early, and was finally discovered by posterity.
(...) Continue readingAmedeo Modigliani found his way to art in fever dreams
Amedeo Modigliani was born on 12 July 1884 in Livorno. He grew up in modest circumstances in an enlightened Jewish household but suffered serious illnesses in his childhood, including tuberculosis. Health difficulties accompanied him throughout his life, as did economic ones. His mother, born in France, translated poems by Gabriele D’Annunzio to support the family and taught Amedeo French at an early age. It is reputed that his determination to become an artist came to him in a fever dream; his parents subsequently permitted him to take private painting and drawing lessons with Guglielmo Micheli. As the youngest student in the class at the age of fourteen, he oriented himself initially towards the Impressionist style and developed an interest in nude painting. A trip to Rome made with his mother made a deep impression on the young Modigliani which he captured in five letters written to his artist friend Oscar Ghiglia.
A bohemian on Montmartre
Amedeo Modigliani studied in Florence with Giovanni Fattori and dedicated himself intensively to the art of the Renaissance. He deepened his knowledge of nude drawing in Venice, saw the work of Auguste Rodin and Symbolism at the Biennale, took part in seances, and consumed hashish for the first time. In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris – the year before, the Fauves around Henri Matisse and André Derain had cased a sensation there and set the artworld in motion. At the Académie Colarossi, he dedicated himself once more to nude drawing, but was forced to often move home on Montmartre because he was unable to pay the rent. During this time, he was close friends with the German painter Ludwig Meidner, and despite continuing health and financial problems, participated actively in the debauchery of the Parisian artistic milieu. His fellow painter, Henri Doucet, introduced Modigliani to the young doctor Paul Alexandre who promoted the artist and enabled him access to the Parisian upper class.
Scandalous nude paintings, drug addiction and early death
Influenced by the Romanian artist Constantin Brâncusi, Amedeo Modigliani worked for a short time as a sculptor. During this time, he had an affair with the Russian poet Anna Achmatova and was able to present several of his sculptures with Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. He met Jacques Lipchitz and Jacob Epstein, but turned back to painting in 1914 – perhaps also because his stricken health could no longer cope with the rigors of sculpture. When the contact to his patron Alexandre was broken with the start of the First World War, Modigliani went on to be represented by Paul Guillaume. With his friends Chaim Soutine and Maurice Utrillo, he succumbed to drug and alcohol addiction, heavily critcised by his lover Beatrice Hastings, whom he eventually left for the just-nineteen-year-old Jeanne Hébuterne. During these years, Modigliani produced primarily portraits and nudes, and a presentation of his paintings in Berthe Weill’s gallery led to a scandal because of their blatant liberality. Characteristic of Modigliani’s nudes were the almost grotesque elongated heads of his models and the reddish and grey-blue colouring.
Amedeo Modigliani died on 24 January 1920 in Paris. His early death solidified the romantic notion of the ill-fated bohemian; his fiancée Jeanne followed him with suicide.
Amedeo Modigliani - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
