Artist Modigliani. Biography and paintings of Amedeo Modigliani, Italian impressionist artist

Biography and episodes of life Amedeo Modigliani. When born and died Amedeo Modigliani, memorable places and dates important events his life. Artist Quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Amedeo Modigliani:

born July 12, 1884, died January 24, 1920

Epitaph

Left a mark in people's hearts,
The memory of you is forever alive.

Biography

Biography of Amedeo Modigliani - life story genius artist, recognized only after death. Modigliani's life was filled with many hardships - poverty, misunderstanding of his contemporaries, drugs, failed relationships and serious illnesses. Today, Modigliani's paintings are sold for fabulous sums - Amedeo is considered one of the most famous artists XIX-XX centuries

Perhaps, if not for a difficult childhood, Modigliani would never have become an artist. The boy grew up in poor family Italian Jews and was sick a lot - first with pleurisy, then with typhus. During his fever, Amedeo raved about paintings by Italian artists, and when he recovered, his parents allowed him to leave school and take up painting to help the young man realize his dreams. By the age of eighteen, Modigliani’s mother was able to save some money so that he could continue his studies and work in Paris, where Amedeo moved.

In Paris, Modigliani was constantly short of money. And not only because his paintings hardly sold, but also because, finding himself in bohemian French society, young Modigliani soon became interested in alcohol and drugs. He survived mainly thanks to his patrons, who saw in the young man great talent. But Modigliani’s only lifetime exhibition was closed within a few hours; the police from the station opposite were outraged by the images of nude models in Modigliani’s paintings.

Modigliani's personal life was also stormy - it was rumored that he had love relationship with all the women who posed for him. He himself explained this by necessity, saying how you can draw a woman and show her beauty and sensuality without ever knowing her. Among famous novels Modigliani - love affair with Anna Akhmatova. Modigliani's last and most important model was the artist Jeanne Hebuterne. In fact, they were spouses. Jeanne gave birth to Modigliani only daughter— she was named after her mother.

Hebuterne was pregnant with her second child when her husband died suddenly. Modigliani's death occurred when he was only 35 years old. Modigliani's cause of death was tuberculous meningitis. The day after Amedeo Modigliani's death, his wife committed suicide by jumping out of a window. At the time of her death, she was nine months pregnant. Modigliani's funeral took place in Paris; Modigliani's grave is located in the Père Lachaise cemetery. The remains of his wife, reburied ten years after her death, rest in the adjacent grave.

Life line

July 12, 1884 Date of birth of Amedeo Modigliani.
1898 Visit Modigliani private art studio Guglielmo Micheli.
1902 Admission to the Free School of Nude Painting from the Academy of Arts in Florence.
1903 Admission to the Venice Institute of Fine Arts.
1906 Moving to Paris.
1910 Meeting Akhmatova.
December 3, 1917 Opening of Modigliani's only lifetime exhibition.
April 1917 Meet Jeanne Hebuterne.
November 29, 1918 Birth of Modigliani's daughter, Jeanne.
January 24, 1920 Modigliani's date of death.

Memorable places

1. Livorno, where Amedeo Modigliani was born.
2. Modigliani House in Italy.
3. Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where Modigliani studied.
4. Cafe "Rotunda", where Parisian artists often gathered and where Modigliani met Akhmatova.
5. Modigliani's house (workshop) in Paris, where he lived and worked in 1916.
6. Modigliani's house in Paris, where he lived in his last years before his death.
7. The building of the former Charité hospital, where Modigliani died.
8. Père Lachaise cemetery, where Modigliani is buried.

Episodes of life

In Paris, Modigliani was in poverty, like many other artists. Addicted to alcohol, he sometimes tried to pay for drinks with his drawings or sketches, which no one bought. For example, the owner of a brasserie in Montparnasse, who had a liking for a pale, dark-haired young man in felt hat. True, Rosalie was an illiterate woman and used the drawings she received from Modigliani to light the fireplace, so only a few works have survived. On them Amedeo left the signature “Modi” - translated from French as “damned”.

The period of relations with Anna Akhmatova was very fruitful for the artist. In total, Modigliani wrote about 150 works in which one can find portrait likeness with a Russian poetess. Akhmatova herself preserved only one drawing by Modigliani. When the poet Anatoly Naiman asked Anna Andreevna if she had a will, she replied: “What kind of inheritance can we talk about? Take Modi’s drawing under your arm and leave.”

During the last years of Modigliani's life, his paintings finally began to sell. Amedeo and Zhanna had money, she became pregnant with her second child, and it seemed that things were going uphill. Alas, but sudden illness ended the artist's life, followed by his beloved - of her own free will. After the death of both parents, Modigliani's daughter was taken in by her sister Amedeo.

Covenant

"Happiness is an angel with a sad face."

TV story about Modigliani's life

Condolences

“Everything divine in Modigliani only sparkled through some kind of darkness. He was completely unlike anyone else in the world.”
Anna Akhmatova, poetess

“Our Modigliani, or Modi, as he is called, was a typical and at the same time very talented representative of bohemian Montmartre; rather, he was the last true representative of bohemia.”
Ludwig Meidner, artist

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

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.

Meeting the sculptor Constantin Brancusi in 1909 played a fundamental role in the development sculptural creativity Modigliani. 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 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 friends the Cubists; 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.

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

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. IN next year Zborovsky organized a personal 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 knew hundreds of lines from Leopardi and Dante by heart

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 torments of an always restless conscience.

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 Sephardic 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.

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani - Italian painter and sculptor, one of the most famous artists late XIX- beginning of the 20th century, bright representative expressionism.

Biography of Amadeo Modigliani

« Human face- the highest creation of nature” - these words of the artist could become an epigraph to his work.

Modigliani Amedeo (1884-1920), Italian painter, sculptor, graphic artist, draftsman; belonged to the "Paris School". Modigliani was born in Livorno on July 12, 1884. He began to study the art of painting in 1898 in the workshop of the sculptor Gabriele Micheli. Since 1902, he studied at the “Free School of Drawing from Nude” at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, mainly with the painter Giovanni Fattori, whose name is in Italian painting associated with the "Macchiaioli" movement, which is related to the French "Tachisme". In 1903, having moved to Venice, Modigliani studied at the Free School of Nude at the Venice Institute of Fine Arts. From 1906 he settled in Paris, where he took lessons at the Colarossi Academy of Painting. In 1907, Modigliani first showed his works at the Autumn Salon, and from 1908 he exhibited at the Salon of Independents. In the Rotunda café on Montparnasse Boulevard, where writers and artists gathered, Modigliani was among friends who, like him, lived with the problems of art. During these years, the artist was keenly searching for his “soul line,” as his friend, the poet Jean Cocteau, called Modigliani’s creative quest. If the first works of the Parisian period were executed in a manner close to the graphics of Toulouse-Lautrec, then already in 1907 the artist discovered the paintings of Cezanne, met Pablo Picasso and for some time was influenced by these masters.

This is evidenced by the works of 1908-1909 (“Jewish Woman”, 1908, “Celloist”, 1909, both in a private collection, Paris).

A particularly important role in the formation of Modigliani’s individual style was also played by his passion for African sculpture, its crudely simple but expressive forms and clean silhouette lines.

At the same time, the art of his native Italy and, above all, Botticelli’s drawings, Trecento and masterly painting complex graphics Mannerists are the master's sources of inspiration. Modigliani's complex talent was most fully revealed in the portrait genre.

“Man is what interests me. The human face is the highest creation of nature. For me this is an inexhaustible source,” writes Modigliani. Never making portraits to order, the artist painted only people whose fates he knew well; Modigliani seemed to be recreating his own image of the model.

In the sharply expressive portraits of Diego Rivera (1914, Art Museum, Sao Paulo), Pablo Picasso (1915, private collection, Geneva), Max Jacob (1916, private collection, Paris), Jean Cocteau (private collection, New York), Chaim Soutine (1917, National Gallery of Art, Washington) the artist precisely found the details, gesture, silhouette line, color dominants, the key to understanding the entire image - always a subtly captured characteristic “state of mind”.

Works of Amadeo Clemente Modigliani

Among other outstanding French masters of the early century, Modigliani seems most connected with the classical tradition.

He was not fascinated by the Cubists’ experiments with “pure” space and time; he did not, like the Fauvists, strive to embody the universal laws of life. For Modigliani, man was “a world that is sometimes worth many worlds,” and the human personality in its unique originality is the only source of images. But, unlike portrait painters of previous eras, he did not create a picturesque “mirror” of nature. It is characteristic that, always working from life, he did not so much “copy” its features as compare them with his inner vision. Using a refined stylization of the model’s appearance and abstract rhythms of lines and plastic masses, with the help of their expression, dynamic “shifts” and harmonious unity, Modigliani created his freely poetic, purely spiritual, sadness-covered images.

The most characteristic feature of his style is the special role of line, however, in all his best works the artist achieved harmony of line and color, a wealth of values ​​united in generalized color zones.

The sculptural integrity of volumes is combined in his paintings with sculpted color, space seems pressed into the plane of the canvas, and the line not only outlines objects, but also connects spatial plans. In the general softness of Modigliani's style, in the light that fills his work, the Italian basis of his art is clearly perceptible.

Modigliani almost never painted bourgeois or wealthy clients.

His characters are ordinary people, maids, peasants, as well as the artists and poets around him. Each of the images is dictated by nature. Women are full of refined grace or folk energy, they look either arrogant or defenseless. In “Self-Portrait” the image embodies a restrained lyrical impulse, seeming to be filled with music from within. Modigliani portrays his friend and almost only “Marchand,” the poet L. Zborovsky, immersed in dreams, the expressionist artist X. Soutine as open and impulsive, and the more classical painter M. Kisling as stubborn and internally compressed. In the plastic solution of Max Jacob's portrait, sophistication is inseparable from modern syncopated rhythms... For all their uniqueness, these portraits bear the features of a single handwriting (almond-shaped or lake-like eyes, arrow-shaped noses, pursed lips, a predominance of oval and elongated shapes, etc.) and a single vision. In all of them one can feel compassion and tenderness for people, soft, contemplative and closed lyricism.

Modigliani does not seek to unravel the mystery of the identity of his heroes; on the contrary, each of his images reveals its own special mystery and beauty.

Self-portrait Portrait of the poet Zborovsky Portrait of Chaim Soutine

An equally striking page of his work is the depiction of nudes. Compared to others' nudes modern masters, in particular A. Matisse, Modigliani’s “nudes” always seem individual and portrait-like. The more contrasting is the transformation of a nature full of immediate life into images, purified of everything empirical, filled with enlightened and timeless beauty. In these images, the concrete sensual principle is preserved, but it is “sublimated”, spiritualized, translated into the language of musically fluid lines and harmonies of rich ocher tones - light golden, reddish-red, dark brown.

An almost inexhaustible part of Modigliani’s heritage is drawings (portraits or “nude”), made in pencil, ink, ink, watercolor or pastel.

Drawing was, as it were, the artist’s way of existence; it embodied Modigliani’s inherent love of line, his constant thirst for creativity and his inexhaustible interest in people; He often used pencil sketches to pay for a cup of coffee or a plate of food. Created at once, without corrections, these drawings impress with their stylistic energy, figurative completeness, and precision of form.

Interesting Facts: Sex Life and Drama

Sex life

Modigliani loved women, and they loved him. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of women have been in the bed of this elegant handsome man.

Back at school, Amedeo noticed that girls paid special attention to him. Modigliani said that at the age of 15 he was seduced by a maid working in their house.

Although he, like many of his colleagues, was not averse to visiting brothels, the bulk of his mistresses were his models.

And during his career he changed hundreds of models. Many posed for him naked, interrupting several times during the session to make love.

Modigliani liked simple women most of all, for example, laundresses, peasant women, and waitresses.

These girls were terribly flattered by attention beautiful artist, and they obediently gave themselves to him.

Sexual partners

Despite his many sexual partners, Modigliani loved only two women in his life.

The first was Beatrice Hastings, an English aristocrat, poetess, five years old older than the artist. They met in 1914 and immediately became inseparable lovers.

They drank together, had fun and often fought. Modigliani, in a rage, could drag her by the hair along the sidewalk if he suspected her of attention to other men.

But despite all these dirty scenes, it was Beatrice who was his main source of inspiration. During the heyday of their love, Modigliani created his best works. Still, this stormy romance could not last long. In 1916, Beatrice ran away from Modigliani. Since then they have not seen each other again.

The artist grieved for his unfaithful girlfriend, but not for long.

In July 1917, Modigliani met 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne.

The young student came from a French Catholic family. The delicate, pale girl and the artist settled together, despite the resistance of Jeanne’s parents, who did not want a Jewish son-in-law. Jeanne not only served as a model for the artist’s works, she went through with him years of serious illness, periods of rudeness and outright rowdy.

In November 1918, Jeanne gave birth to Modigliani’s daughter, and in July 1919 he proposed marriage to her “as soon as all the papers arrive.”

Why they never got married remains a mystery, since these two were, as they say, made for each other and remained together until his death 6 months later.

When Modigliani lay dying in Paris, he invited Jeanne to join him in death, “so that I could be with my beloved model in paradise and enjoy eternal bliss with her.”

On the day of the artist’s funeral, Zhanna was on the verge of despair, but did not cry, but was only silent the whole time.

Pregnant with their second child, she threw herself from the fifth floor to her death.

A year later, at the insistence of the Modigliani family, they were united under one gravestone. The second inscription on it read:

Jeanne Hebuterne. Born in Paris in April 1898. Died in Paris on January 25, 1920. Faithful companion of Amedeo Modigliani, who did not want to survive separation from him.

Modigliani and Anna Akhmatova

A. A. Akhmatova met Amedeo Modigliani in 1910 in Paris, during her honeymoon.

Her acquaintance with A. Modigliani continued in 1911, at which time the artist created 16 drawings - portraits of A. A. Akhmatova. In her essay on Amedeo Modigliani she wrote:

In 10, I saw him extremely rarely, only a few times. Nevertheless, he wrote to me all winter. (I remember several phrases from his letters, one of them: Vous etes en moi comme une hantise / You are like an obsession in me). He didn’t tell me that he wrote poetry.

As I now understand, what struck him most about me was my ability to guess thoughts, see other people’s dreams and other little things that those who know me have long been accustomed to.

At this time, Modigliani was raving about Egypt. He took me to the Louvre to see the Egyptian section and assured me that everything else was unworthy of attention. He painted my head in the attire of Egyptian queens and dancers and seemed completely captivated by the great art of Egypt. Apparently Egypt was his latest hobby. Soon he becomes so original that you don’t want to remember anything when looking at his canvases.

He didn’t draw me from life, but at his home—he gave these drawings to me. There were sixteen of them. He asked me to frame them and hang them in my room. They died in a Tsarskoye Selo house in the first years of the revolution. Only one survived, and, unfortunately, there is less foreshadowing of his future in him than in the others.”

Bibliography and filmography

Literature

• Parisot K. “Modigliani”, M., Text, 2008.
• Vilenkin V.V. “Amedeo Modigliani”, M. 1970.

Filmography

• In 1957, the Frenchman Jacques Becker directed the film "Montparnasse 19" ("The Lovers of Montparnasse") with Gérard Philippe in the title role.
• In 2004, Briton Mick Davis directed the film Modigliani. main role played by Andy Garcia.

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The biography of Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) is similar to a novel about a classical genius.

Short life like a flash. Early death. The deafening posthumous fame that overtook him literally on the day of the funeral.

The paintings that the artist left as payment for lunch in a cafe suddenly become worth tens of millions of dollars!

And also the love of my life. With a beautiful young girl who looks like Princess Rapunzel. And the tragedy is worse than the story of Romeo and Juliet.

If all this were not true, I would snort, “Oh, this doesn’t happen in life!” Too twisted. Too emotional. Too tragic."

But everything happens in life. And this is just about Modigliani.

Unique Modigliani

Modigliani is mysterious to me like no other artist. For one simple reason. How did he manage to create almost all of his works in the same style, and so unique?

He worked in Paris, communicated with Picasso,. I saw the work and... But he didn’t fall under anyone’s influence.

It feels like he was born and lived on a desert island. And he wrote all his works there. Unless I saw African masks. Maybe a couple of works by Cezanne and El Greco. Otherwise, his painting has almost no impurities.

If you look at early works any artist, you will understand that first he was looking for himself. Modigliani's contemporaries often started with . Like or . And even .

Left: Edvard Munch “Rue Lafayette”, 1901. National Gallery Oslo, Norway. Right: Pablo Picasso “Bullfight”, 1901 Private collection. Bottom: Kazimir Malevich “Spring, apple tree in bloom”, 1904 Tretyakov Gallery.

Sculpture and El Greco

In Modigliani you will not find this period of self-searching. True, his painting changed a little after he was engaged in sculpture for 5 years.

Here are two works created before and after the sculptural period.

It’s immediately noticeable how much Modigliani’s sculpturalism transfers into painting. His famous elongation also appears. And a long neck. And deliberately sketchy.

He really wanted to continue sculpting. But since childhood he had diseased lungs, tuberculosis returned over and over again. And stone and marble chips aggravated his illness.

Therefore, after 5 years he returned to painting.

I’ll also risk looking for similarities between Modigliani’s works and El Greco’s works. And it’s not just about the elongation of faces and figures.

For El Greco, the body is a thin shell through which the human soul shines through.

Amedeo followed the same path. After all, the people in his portraits bear little resemblance to how they really looked. Rather, it conveys character, soul. By adding what a person did not see in the mirror. For example, asymmetry of the face and body.

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This can also be seen in Cezanne. He also often made the eyes of his heroes different. Look at the portrait of his wife. It’s as if we read in her eyes, “What did you come up with again? You’re making me sit here like a tree stump..."

Portraits of Modigliani

Modigliani painted people. I completely ignored still lifes. His landscapes are also extremely rare.

He has many portraits of his friends and acquaintances from his circle. They all lived, worked and played in the Montparnasse district of Paris. Here poor artists rented the cheapest housing and went to nearest cafes. Alcohol, hashish, partying until the morning.

Amedeo especially took care of the unsociable and sensitive Chaim Soutine. A sloppy, withdrawn and very original artist: his whole essence is before us.

Mismatched eyes, crooked nose, different shoulders. And also the color scheme: brown-gray-blue. Table with very long legs. And a tiny glass.

In all this one can read loneliness, inability to cope with life. Well, truthfully, without flattery.

Amedeo wrote not only to friends, but also to unfamiliar people.

There is no such thing as one emotion prevailing in him. Like, make fun of everyone. Be touched by everyone.

He is clearly being ironic about this couple. An elderly gentleman marries a young girl of humble origin. For her, this marriage is an opportunity to solve her financial problems.

The fox-like cut of her cunning eyes and slightly vulgar earrings help to read her nature. What about the groom, don’t you know?

Here his collar is raised on one side and lowered on the other. He doesn’t want to think sensibly next to his bride, who is bursting with youth.

But the artist endlessly pities this girl. The combination of her open gaze, folded arms and slightly clubbed legs tell us of extreme naivety and defenselessness.

Well, how can you not feel sorry for such a child!

As you can see, each portrait is a whole world of a person. Reading their characters, we can even guess their fate. For example, the fate of Chaim Soutine.

Alas, although he will wait for recognition, he will be already very ill. His inability to take care of himself will lead him to stomach ulcers and extreme exhaustion.

And his experiences of being persecuted by the Nazis during the war would lead him to his grave.

But Amedeo will not know about this; he will die 20 years before his friend.

Modigliani's women

Modigliani was a very attractive man. Italian Jewish origin was charming and sociable. The women, of course, couldn't resist.

He had a lot of them. Among other things, he is credited with short novel with Anna Akhmatova.

She denied it until the end of her life. Many of Amedeo's drawings of her that were given to her simply disappeared. Because they were in nude style?

But some still survived. And based on them, we assume that these people had intimacy.

But main woman in Modigliani's life there was Jeanne Hebuterne. She was madly in love with him. He also felt for her tender feelings. So tender that he was ready to get married.

He also painted several dozen portraits of her. And among them there is not a single Nu.

I call her Princess Rapunzel because she had very long and Thick hair. And as is usually the case with Modigliani, her portraits do not look very much like the real her. But her character is readable. Calm, reasonable, endlessly loving.

Left: Photo by Jeanne Hebuterne. Right: Portrait of a Girl (Jeanne Hebuterne) by Modigliani, 1917.

Amedeo, although he was the life of the party, behaved somewhat differently with close people. Booze and hashish are half the battle. He could have flared up while drunk.

Zhanna easily dealt with this, calming her angry lover with her words and gestures.

This is her last portrait. She is pregnant with her second child. Which, alas, was not destined to be born.

Returning from a cafe, drunk with friends, Modigliani unbuttoned his coat. And I caught a cold. His lungs, weakened by tuberculosis, could not stand it - he died the next day from meningitis.

And Zhanna was too young and in love. She didn't give herself time to recover from the loss. Unable to bear the eternal separation from Modigliani, she jumped out the window. Being nine months pregnant.

Their first daughter was taken in by Modigliani's sister. Growing up, she became her father's biographer.

Nude Modigliani

Most of the Nu Modigliani created in the period 1917-1918. It was an order from an art dealer. Such works sold well, especially after the artist’s death.

So most of them are still in private collections. We managed to find one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).

See how the model's body is cut off by the edges of the painting at the elbows and knees. So the artist brings her very close to the viewer. She enters his personal space. Yes, it’s not surprising that such works sold well.

In 1917, an art dealer organized an exhibition of such nudes. But an hour later it was closed. Considering Modigliani's work indecent.

What? And this was in 1918? When did everyone write nudes?

Yes, we wrote a lot. But ideal and abstract women. And this means the presence of one important detail– smooth armpits without hair. Yes, yes, this is exactly what confused the police.

Thus, the lack of hair removal turned out to be the main sign of whether a woman is a goddess or real woman. Is it worthy of being shown to the public or out of sight.

Modigliani is unique even after death

Modigliani is the most copied artist in the world. For every original there are 3 fakes! This is a unique situation.

How did this happen?

But the latter maintained a thorough correspondence with his brother. It was from the letters that a complete catalog of Van Gogh's originals was compiled.

But Modigliani did not record his works. And he became famous on the day of his funeral. Unscrupulous art dealers took advantage of this, and an avalanche of fakes poured onto the market.

And there were several such waves, as soon as prices for Modigliani paintings jumped to Once again.

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“Life is a gift: from the few to the many, from those who have it and who know what it is to those who do not have it and do not know it,” written by the hand of the author, Amedeo Modigliani, on the back of the portrait of Lunia Chekhovsk.

Why artist Amedeo Modigliani lived and died in poverty, and today his paintings are considered among the most expensive in the world? There are many talented artists, but only a few become cult figures. Reproductions from his paintings are placed on cosmetic and wine labels, haberdashery, dishes, and perfumes are named after him. The very life of this artist gives rise to legends: Modigliani, a handsome, elegant and witty representative of the artistic bohemia, died young, a string of women passed through his bed, he spent his days among alcohol and drugs in Parisian taverns, and rumors about his scandals and fights came out far beyond Montmartre. He signed his works “Modi,” which means “damned” in French. Biography of Modigliani – ready romantic melodrama, to which nothing needs to be added, the French director Jacques Becker in the late fifties of the last century invited Gérard Philippe to play the role of Modigliani in his film “19 Montparnasse”. The film cannot be called successful, but Gerard Philippe perfectly conveyed the plasticity of a sleepwalker inherent in Modigliani, and his gaze turned inward. By a strange coincidence, Gerard Philippe died just as young and became a myth after his death.

"Modigliani, the Jew"

Amedeo Modigliani was born on July 12, 1884 in Italian city Livorno in a wealthy family. The mother came from Sephardic Jews who at one time arrived from Tunisia to Marseille, she was well educated. By the time she was lying on the bed and was about to give birth to him, bailiffs entered the house - his father went bankrupt. According to ancient Italian custom, only things on the bed of a woman in labor were not subject to confiscation, so the household hastily carried all the most valuable things in the house onto the bed of the woman in labor. Modigliani's direct maternal ancestor was the famous thinker Baruch Spinoza. Modigliani’s grandfather was an encyclopedically well-read polyglot, had an excellent understanding of art and played first-class chess. Thanks to family traditions, Modigliani also received a diverse education, knowledge of ancient and modern literature, Fluency French. As a child, Amedeo became seriously ill and, in his delirium, saw prophetic visions that his calling was to be an artist.

He lived most of his life in his cosmopolitan hometown of Livorno, where there was no Jewish district. He was friends with many Jews: Chagall, Zadkine, Lipchitz, and most of all with 18-year-old Chaim Soutine, whom he took care of. In the first painting he exhibited at the Salon of Independents in 1908, among his five other works, he depicted a young Jewish woman. No hint of a foreign accent French, atypical appearance for a Jew misled the French. Many took him for an Italian. But when meeting someone, the artist said: “Modigliani, a Jew.” With this, he immediately opposed anti-Semites and characterized himself as an outcast and an independent person. He wore Jewishness as chosenness, and not as involvement in certain traditions and culture.

Amedeo was 22 years old when he left hometown, came to Paris and settled in Montmartre.

Legendary Montmartre

In Montmartre, by the beginning of the 20th century, a special way of life had developed that attracted bohemians. A whole galaxy of brilliant artists was formed here, but the special spirit of this place also shaped them themselves. Previously, it was a very picturesque rural area, located near Paris, where living was much cheaper than in the capital. The works of famous people are associated with Montmartre French artists, 19th century - Sisley, Renoir, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec. It had its own carnival traditions: every year, for example, “ wedding ceremony" by artist Pulbo: the curled "groom" walked hand in hand with the one dressed in White dress bridesmaid Leona. Local loafers portrayed a pastor, a mayor, a priest, and even a wet nurse with cardboard breasts. In the end, they got married for real, but they did not abandon the tradition. Pulbo collected “living pictures”, and once he reproduced “The Last Cartridges” by A. Neuville, a military episode during the defense of Paris in 1870. The inhabitants of Montmartre “fought” all night in the surrounding forest, dressed as Zouaves, Marine soldiers, Algerian riflemen, Garibaldians, canteens and army prostitutes. In the end they “took” the Moulin de la Galette by storm. The inhabitants were scared to death and decided that the Germans had attacked Paris.

Aesthetes and snobs argue that drawings, for example, by Modigliani should be seen, albeit under glass, but live, under special museum lighting. It's stupid to argue. And no one argues. Let's believe the aesthetes and snobs. But let us humbly accept the truth that the path to entering art is mysterious.

The artists did not cook food at home - there were no conditions for this, so the centers where everyone gathered after working day at the easel, there were zucchini like “Frisky Rabbit” or “Black Cat”. In those days, food preparation had not yet been put on stream, and therefore it was quite homemade, tasty and inexpensive. The poorest could get half a portion, and they could take the dish home. One of the taverns called “The Boys from the Hill” went bankrupt because the owner forgave debts of talented artists. Modigliani became addicted to dining for free, but not all zucchini owners were so kind. Once a group of artists dined for free with the owner of an Italian tavern. Modigliani walked by. He had the expressive look of a man who cannot eat lunch. However, when he saw his acquaintances, he joined them, which completely infuriated the owner. Lunch is over big scandal, again thanks to Modigliani. He paid for drinks with the owner of one of the pubs, Rosalie, with his drawings and sketches. Rosalie patronized the poor artist, but was illiterate and lit the fireplace with these drawings, which is why only a few of the works donated to her have reached us.

Followers also met in Montmartre traditional art, who made a good living from book and magazine illustrations. Photography was not yet so well developed, and they had a lot of orders. But there were fewer and fewer rich and successful people in Montmartre. Depending on how the artist dressed, one could determine whether he was an innovator or a conservative. The innovators dressed in such a way as to shock conservatives and the bourgeois with their appearance: musketeer cloaks with hoods, Breton vests, dentist's smocks, on their feet - clogs or even barefoot, their hair tied with a cord, like the Indians. Contemporaries described a special wooden tie that adorned one young man, which, depending on the situation, served either as a baton or musical instrument– strings were stretched across it. Here is a typical sight of that time: the huge, bearded artist Diego Rivera walks with a confident gait, waving a cane with Aztec figurines. Next is the Russian artist Marevna in a pink wide-brimmed hat, her father’s cape, bicycle breeches and black shoes. Modigliani recites lines from Dante's Inferno as he walks. Behind him is his friend the artist Soutine, flushed and beaming after a hearty lunch with libations. Next - Ehrenburg with a horse face, Voloshin, looking like a lion, Picasso and Max Jacob, one in a huge “Cubist coat”, a jockey cap on his head, the other in a fitted coat, black top hat, white gloves and leggings. Green suit, red vest, yellow shoes - this is what a typical inhabitant of the Montparnasse artist colony looked like. But the style that today is called “military” was especially popular; it was introduced into fashion by Degas: a straight jacket with a stand-up collar, large buttons, velor leg warmers with an elastic band at the ankle. The hairstyles were the most fantastic - from a crew cut to long curls, the same applied to the beard - from unkempt goatees to goatees. Picasso wore a mechanic's outfit: blue overalls, a cheap red cotton shirt with white polka dots, a red belt, sandals with rope soles. But no one could compete with Amedeo Modigliani in terms of elegance. He was irresistible in a beige velvet suit, which had acquired an original pearlescent sheen from endless washing, and a casually tied scarf. Modigliani had a manic love for cleanliness, but he only had one blue shirt, which he washed every day. Even after becoming completely addicted to alcohol and drugs, Modigliani remained just as elegant.

Modigliani in Montmartre

In Paris he changed addresses many times. Subsequently they said that this eternal homelessness was a blessing for Modigliani, because it unleashed his wings for creative flights. For some time he lived in a small workshop shed in the middle of a wasteland overgrown with bushes. Sometimes he even spent the night at the Saint-Lazare station, because the money sent from home was spent on hashish and booze. Modigliani and the artist Maurice Utrillo were the most famous alcoholic duo in Paris. They were part of Picasso’s company and it was believed that everyone in it was completely notorious drunkards and revelers, which was not true. It's just that brawlers like Modigliani were more visible. Dr. Alexander bought a house on Delta Street that was slated for demolition and set up a temporary artists' colony there. This kind angel of poor artists even furnished the slums with furniture from the Flea Market and hung red curtains on the windows. On the ground floor there was something like a gallery where artists could exhibit their work. Evenings were held here, which attracted audiences from all over Paris. Modigliani often visited and worked here. At that time, he was still interested in sculpture and obtained wood for this, stealing sleepers from the Barbès-Rochechouart station, which was then under construction. It soon turned out that Modigliani was not the best neighbor. He was constantly intoxicated - if not alcohol, then cocaine, hashish or ether. On the night of 1908, while preparing for a festive dinner, he set fire to the Christmas tree garlands. Once, during a dispute with the artists, having exhausted all arguments, he began to beat sculptures and tear up paintings. Modigliani was thrown out the door. The next morning he sobered up and came to ask for forgiveness, but he was no longer allowed in. The house was soon demolished anyway, and the artists' colony disintegrated. After wandering around for some time, he joined a group of tramps who voluntarily moved into an empty building on Douai Street. But even here he did not stay long, because even the beggars did not want to tolerate his antics. He also lived on Rue Joseph-Bar. One of those wonderful concierges who left an invisible mark on art worked here: a former model named Madame Solomon played the role of a strict nanny in this house. She nagged one for making noise in the workshop, another for getting drunk, and lent a third money or fed him.

Modigliani also lived in hotels: damp walls with mold stains, peeling wallpaper, gray sheets, chipped washbasins. According to an eyewitness, “there was a smell of poverty, cheap lodging and shameful diseases.” The owner of one of these hotels, Madame Escaffier, considered herself an instrument of virtue and kept an eye on the guests, preventing them from calmly indulging in debauchery. But after some time an explosion occurred in the hotel. A certain couple in love decided to commit suicide by opening the gas. Before his death, the guy decided to smoke... Kicked out of Madame Escaffier's hotel, Modigliani settled in another hotel. It seemed that it couldn’t be worse than Madame Escaffier’s, but even here the owner hid his brushes and paints, fearing that he would run away without paying. Modigliani once almost died when a huge piece of plaster fell from the ceiling. The owner returned all his property to him and said goodbye to him, without demanding payment - he was afraid that Modigliani would report it to the police.

In such conditions lived the artist, whose painting “Boy in a Blue Jacket” turned out to be the most expensive in the Sotheby’s gallery in 2004 - it went for 11.2 million dollars - twice the advertised price. This is not to say that no one foresaw Modigliani's future. Art dealer Clovis Sago had a nose for talent and acted as cynically as a hyena. In communication he was friendly and sweet, but he lay in wait for the artists until they found themselves in a hopeless situation. Then he exploited them in the most shameless way. The unfortunate artists were completely dependent on people like him. Having learned that Modigliani was dying in the hospital, Sago bought all his works from other dealers and loudly boasted about it. One elderly connoisseur of Modigliani’s works was completely... blind. He walked around the workshops, leaning on the shoulder of a girl who described what she saw in the painting. Without seeing the pictures, the old man chose them with fantastic precision. None of the artists offered him a doodle; they were ashamed to deceive the blind old man. Soon he found himself the owner of a unique collection of paintings.

Modigliani's women

Back at school, Amedeo noticed that girls paid special attention to him. Modigliani said that at the age of 15 he was seduced by a maid working in their house.

“Just imagine what happened to the ladies when they saw the handsome Modigliani walking along Montparnasse Boulevard with a sketchbook at his disposal, dressed in a gray velor suit with a picket fence of colored pencils protruding from each pocket, with a red scarf and a large black hat. I don’t know a single woman who would refuse to come to his workshop,” writes Lunia Czechowska.

Most of Modigliani's fights were over women. The flower girls and milkmaids depicted in Modigliani's paintings were his mistresses - even if only for one night. These girls were flattered by the attention of the handsome artist. As Modigliani argued, to paint a portrait of a woman well, you need to sleep with her at least once. “How else could I depict the mysterious rhythms female body, he said, “and all the bulges and depressions that excite the male imagination? Sensuality in painting is as necessary as a brush and paints; without it, portraits turn out sluggish and lifeless.”

Amedeo found girls on dance floors, where Italian workers and petty criminals were seriously performing steps to the sounds of a harmonium. The painted ladies sniffled and moaned with excitement, clinging to their gentlemen. Modigliani often watched waltzing couples, trying to remember their facial expressions, poses and body movements. One day, for several weeks, he fell in love with a buxom prostitute, Elvira, nicknamed Quickie. She started out as a singer in a cafe, but became addicted to cocaine and lost her voice. She did not like drinking with Modigliani. Her portraits today have taken pride of place in the best art galleries.

But Modigliani truly loved only the journalist Beatrice Hastings and

student Jeanne Hebuterne. Beatrice was five years older than him. The relationship between the lovers was full of passion. They drank together every day, quarreled loudly and often fought. Modigliani, in a rage, could drag her by the hair along the sidewalk. But it was Beatrice who was his main source of inspiration, thanks to her Modigliani created his best works. Still, this stormy romance could not last long. In 1916, Beatrice ran away from Modigliani. Since then they have not seen each other again.

In 1917, Modigliani met nineteen-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne, a student at the Colarossi Academy. The girl and the artist settled together, despite the resistance of Jeanne’s parents, who did not want a Jewish son-in-law. For Amedeo, this year ended poorly: on December 3, the opening of Modigliani’s first and only lifetime solo exhibition took place at the Bertha Weil Gallery. Already during the opening day, the exhibition was prohibited and closed due to the scandalous nude figures exhibited there. And in 1918, Jeanne gave birth to a girl in Nice, whom Modigliani recognizes as his daughter. Jeanne not only served as a model for the artist’s works, she went through years of serious illness with him, endured his rudeness and scandals. Dying, Amedeo invited Jeanne to join him in death, “so that I could be with my beloved model in paradise and enjoy eternal bliss with her.” Modigliani died when Jeanne was already nine months pregnant with her second child. Without her beloved, life seemed meaningless to her; the day after his death, she threw herself down from the window of her parents’ house and crashed.

Many legends exist around Modigliani's relationship with Anna Akhmatova. They met in the Rotunda when Akhmatova came to Paris on her honeymoon. She was only 20 years old, and he was 26. For the first time, they did not communicate for long, because Gumilev, who understood everything, was nearby, calling him a “drunk monster.” He and Amedeo almost came to blows because Gumilyov spoke Russian to Akhmatova in front of him, and Modigliani was outraged by this. Throughout the next winter, Akhmatova and Modigliani corresponded, then Akhmatova again went to Paris. According to Akhmatova, over the course of a year Modigliani somehow became darker and haggard, and everything divine in him only sparkled through some kind of darkness. Akhmatova claimed that she did not pose naked for him; the drawings were his imagination: “He did not draw me from life, but at home - he gave these drawings to me.” Most of these drawings were lost; Akhmatova was left with one, which she considered her main wealth. She told her young secretary Anatoly Naiman: “Take Modi’s drawing under your arm and leave.” Nowadays, it turns out that three more drawings have survived: “Sleeping Nude with Standing male figure”, “Sleeping Nude” and “Standing Nude”. All three date back to 1910-1911. There is also an oil portrait of Akhmatova.

Lunatic

American journalist Bella Yezerskaya very accurately called Modigliani a sleepwalker, abstracted from the realities of life. He painted from morning to evening and most nights, not interested in the nature outside the window and the life around him, and in fact walked through life like a sleepwalker on a ledge, every minute at the risk of falling. Akhmatova recalled that he seemed to her to be surrounded by a dense ring of loneliness. She did not remember him saying goodbye to anyone in the Luxembourg Gardens or in the Latin Quarter, where everyone more or less knew each other. She did not hear from him a single name of an acquaintance, friend or artist. Modigliani treated travelers with disdain. He believed that travel is a substitute for true action. Amedeo did not talk to Akhmatova about anything earthly. Modigliani loved to wander around Paris at night, and often, hearing his steps in the sleepy silence of the street, she would go to the window and, through the blinds, watch his shadow lingering under her windows. She was struck by how Modigliani found one obviously beautiful ugly person and really insisted on it. She already thought then: he probably sees everything differently from everyone else. He focused only on the person, finding his own way to generalize the figure and turn it into an image. According to researchers of Modigliani’s work A. Tolstoy and A. Mityushina, in his paintings, incredibly elongated heads on long, ideally shaped necks, with slightly outlined facial features, are like ancient gods. Modigliani painted only well-known, close, dear, or at least people he liked. As a true native of Italy, Modigliani admired physical beauty, found harmony between soul and flesh, and therefore beautiful body, exquisite form, graceful silhouette of the figure, as if containing the souls of his heroes - this is the essence of Modigliani himself. The artist’s “nudes,” the researchers further write, “look like some fragments of a fresco, painted not from specific models, but as if synthesized from many, many nude models. For Modigliani, they do not so much radiate sensuality and eroticism as a certain ideal of femininity in general. In this sense, we can say that Modigliani’s nudes are not just beautiful individuals female, but, rather, manifestations of a certain element, majestically and slowly unfolding before our eyes, but in no way dependent on us, but pictures living in space according to their own laws.”