Amedeo Modigliani: The Complete Story
Amedeo Modigliani was the Italian painter of long necks and almond eyes, a beautiful, doomed figure of bohemian Paris who burned through a short life and died at thirty five. His nudes once had a show shut down by the police, and the day after he died, his pregnant lover stepped out of a window. His legend is almost as famous as his faces.
You can spot a Modigliani across a crowded room. That instantly readable style cost him a life of poverty and ended in tragedy.
The face you know instantly
Long oval faces, tilted heads, swan necks, and eyes often left blank like almonds: a Modigliani portrait is unmistakable. He fused the calm of early Italian painting with the stark simplicity of African masks into a look that was entirely his own.
The nudes that shocked Paris
In 1917 he had his only solo show. The nudes in the window pulled such a crowd that the police ordered them taken down for indecency, and the show closed almost as soon as it opened. Those same nudes are now among the most valuable paintings on earth.
The doomed charmer of Montparnasse
Handsome, magnetic and always broke, Modigliani lived hard in Montparnasse alongside Picasso, Soutine and Brancusi. He drank, used hashish, and hid the tuberculosis that was slowly killing him, playing the role of the doomed artist almost too well.
Why the eyes are often blank
People always ask about the empty almond eyes. Modigliani left many of them blank on purpose. When his lover Jeanne asked why, he is said to have answered that he would paint her eyes once he truly knew her soul. The blankness turns each face into a mask and a question at the same time, calm on the surface and unreadable beneath. It is the one quiet trick that makes a Modigliani feel haunted rather than merely elegant.
He wanted to be a sculptor
Before the paintings, Modigliani dreamed of carving. He cut a series of long, serene stone heads, but the dust attacked his weak lungs and he could not afford the materials. He turned back to paint, carrying the carved, simplified forms with him onto the canvas.
Jeanne Hebuterne
His great love was the young painter Jeanne Hebuterne. When he died of tubercular meningitis in January 1920, she was pregnant with their second child. The next day, in grief, she fell to her death from a high window. The double tragedy turned a poor painter into a legend overnight.
The works to know
A few works carry his fame: the long Reclining Nude, the portraits of Jeanne, the portrait of his friend Soutine, and his carved stone heads. Each face is a mood more than a likeness.
Quick answers about Amedeo Modigliani
Who was Amedeo Modigliani? An Italian painter and sculptor of the School of Paris.
When was he born? In Livorno, Italy, in 1884.
How did he die? In Paris, in 1920, of tubercular meningitis, at the age of 35.
What is he famous for? His elongated portraits and his nudes.
Who was Jeanne Hebuterne? His young lover, who died the day after he did.
Where can I see his work? Major modern collections worldwide, from the Met to the Centre Pompidou.
In 2015 his Reclining Nude sold for over one hundred and seventy million dollars, among the highest prices ever paid for a painting. A century earlier, the police had shut down the show where nudes like it first hung.