ArtHitParade
ArtHitParade on X
  • Home
    • Contact
  • Calendar
  • Top 10
    • Origin
    • From 600 BCE to CE
    • Years 1 to 1000
    • Years 1000 to 1400
    • 15th Century >
      • Years 1400-1429
      • Years 1430-1459
      • Years 1460-1479
      • Years 1480-1499
    • 16th Century >
      • Years 1500-1519
      • Decade 1520-1529
      • Decade 1530-1539
      • Years 1540-1569
      • Years 1570-1599
    • 17th Century >
      • Decade 1600-1609
      • Decade 1610-1619
      • Decade 1620-1629
      • Decade 1630-1639
      • Decade 1640-1649
      • Decade 1650-1659
      • Years 1660-1679
      • Years 1680-1699
    • 18th Century >
      • Decade 1700-1709
      • Decade 1710-1719
      • Decade 1720-1729
      • Decade 1730-1739
      • Decade 1740-1749
      • Decade 1750-1759
      • Decade 1760-1769
      • Decade 1770-1779 >
        • 1776
      • Decade 1780-1789 >
        • 1787
      • Decade 1790-1799 >
        • 1792
    • 19th Century >
      • Decade 1800-1809
      • Decade 1810-1819
      • Decade 1820-1829
      • Decade 1830-1839
      • Decade 1840-1849
      • Decade 1850-1859
      • Decade 1860-1869
      • Decade 1870-1879 >
        • 1877
        • 1878
        • 1879
      • Decade 1880-1889 >
        • 1880
        • 1881
        • 1882
        • 1884
        • 1885
        • 1887
        • 1888
        • 1889
      • Decade 1890-1899 >
        • 1890
        • 1891
        • 1892
        • 1895
        • 1896
    • 20th Century >
      • Decade 1900-1909 >
        • 1901
        • 1902
        • 1903
        • 1904
        • 1905
        • 1906
        • 1907
        • 1908
        • 1909
      • Decade 1910-1919 >
        • 1910
        • 1911
        • 1912
        • 1913
        • 1914
        • 1915
        • 1916
        • 1917
        • 1918
        • 1919
      • Decade 1920-1929 >
        • 1920
        • 1921
        • 1922
        • 1923
        • 1924
        • 1925
        • 1926
        • 1927
        • 1928
        • 1929
      • Decade 1930-1939 >
        • 1930
        • 1931
        • 1932
        • 1933
        • 1934
        • 1935
        • 1936
        • 1937
        • 1938
        • 1939
      • Decade 1940-1949 >
        • 1941
        • 1942
        • 1943
        • 1945
        • 1946
        • 1947
        • 1948
        • 1949
      • Decade 1950-1959 >
        • 1950
        • 1951
        • 1952
        • 1953
        • 1954
        • 1955
        • 1956
        • 1957
        • 1958
        • 1959
      • Decade 1960-1969 >
        • 1960
        • 1961
        • 1962
        • 1963
        • 1964
        • 1965
        • 1966
        • 1967
        • 1968
        • 1969
      • Decade 1970-1979 >
        • 1970
        • 1971
        • 1972
        • 1973
        • 1974
        • 1975
        • 1976
        • 1977
        • 1978
        • 1979
      • Decade 1980-1989 >
        • 1980
        • 1981
        • 1982
        • 1983
        • 1984
        • 1985
        • 1986
        • 1987
        • 1988
        • 1989
      • Decade 1990-1999 >
        • 1990
        • 1991
        • 1992
        • 1993
        • 1994
        • 1995
        • 1996
        • 1997
        • 1998
        • 1999
    • 21st Century >
      • Decade 2000-2009 >
        • 2000
        • 2001
        • 2002
        • 2003
        • 2004
        • 2005
        • 2006
        • 2007
        • 2008
        • 2009
      • Decade 2010-2019 >
        • 2010
        • 2011
        • 2012
        • 2013
        • 2014
        • 2015
        • 2017
        • 2018
      • 2020 to now >
        • 2021
        • 2022
  • Ancient Painting
    • Flemish Art >
      • Pieter II Brueghel
      • Jan Brueghel
    • Rubens
    • Rembrandt
    • Early Still Life
    • Oil on Copper
  • 18th Century Painting
  • Ancient Drawing
  • Art on Paper
  • Sculpture
    • Bust
    • Ancient Sculpture >
      • Roman Sculpture
    • Italian Sculpture
    • French Sculpture >
      • Rodin
    • Sculpture by Painters
  • Women Artists
    • Ancient Art by Women
    • O'Keeffe
    • Lempicka
    • Martin
    • Mitchell
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Brown
  • Furniture
    • Chairs and Seats
    • Colonial Furniture
    • Ancient French Furniture
    • Modern Furniture >
      • Art Deco
      • Modern Tables
  • Prints
    • Ancient Prints
    • Modern Prints
  • Photo
    • Old Photos >
      • Travel Photos
      • Early French Photo
    • Photos 1900s 1910s
    • Photos 1920s 1930s
    • Photos 1970s 1980s
    • Sherman
    • Gursky
  • The Man
  • The Woman
  • Children
  • Man and Woman
  • Groups
  • Self Portrait
    • Self Portrait 2nd page
  • Nude
  • Abstract Art - 2nd page
  • Landscape
    • Alps
  • Cities
    • Venice
    • Paris
  • Flowers
    • Bouquet
  • Animals
    • Bird
    • Cats and Lions
    • Horse
  • Tabletop
  • Music and Dance in Art
    • Music in Old Painting
  • Sport in Art
  • Orientalism
    • Orientalism 1830-1900
  • France
    • French Painting before 1860
    • Manet
    • Degas
    • Cézanne
    • Monet >
      • Monet before 1879
      • Monet 1879-1887
      • Series by Monet
      • London and Venice
      • Bassin aux Nymphéas
    • Renoir
    • Caillebotte
    • Gauguin
    • Seurat
    • Signac
    • Lautrec
    • Matisse
    • Léger
    • Klein
    • Lalanne
    • Post War French Art
  • Italy
    • Canaletto
    • Modigliani
    • Fontana
    • Mappa by Boetti
  • Swiss Painting
  • Giacometti
    • Giacometti 1947-53
    • Femme Debout
  • Bacon
    • Bacon before 1963
    • Bacon 1963-70
    • Later Bacons
    • Head Triptych
  • UK - 2nd page
    • Ancient England
    • George III
    • British Royals
    • Turner >
      • Watercolor by Turner
    • Freud >
      • Early Freud
    • Hockney
    • Doig
    • Hirst
    • Banksy
  • Richter
    • Richter before 1983
  • Germany - 2nd page
    • Ancient Germany >
      • Cranach
    • Marc
  • Van Gogh
  • Mondrian
  • De Kooning
  • Magritte
    • Early Magritte
  • Belgium 2nd page
  • Ancient Spain
  • Picasso
    • Picasso before 1907
    • Picasso 1907-1931
    • Marie-Thérèse
    • Picasso later 1930s
    • Picasso 1940-1960
    • Picasso in Mougins
    • Prints by Picasso
  • Gris
  • Miro
  • Klimt
  • Schiele
  • USA
    • US Independence
    • Development of USA
    • US Civil War
    • US Painting before 1940 >
      • Sargent
    • Hopper
    • Rockwell
    • Calder
    • Rothko >
      • Early Rothko
      • Rothko 1957-70
    • Still
    • Newman
    • Guston
    • Pollock
    • Diebenkorn
    • Lichtenstein >
      • Lichtenstein after 1965
    • Warhol >
      • USA by Warhol
      • Celebrities by Warhol >
        • Elvis and Liz
      • Later Warhols
      • Prints by Warhol >
        • Warhol Prints 2nd page
    • Twombly
    • Johns
    • Ruscha
    • Koons
    • Marshall
    • Wool
    • Basquiat
    • Bradford
  • Wild West
  • Central and South Americas
    • Mexico
  • China
    • Ritual Bronzes
    • Song
    • Yuan
    • Ming
    • Early Qing
    • Qianlong
    • Modern China >
      • Qi Baishi
      • Zhang Daqian >
        • Zhang Daqian before 1965
      • Fu Baoshi
      • Sanyu >
        • Sanyu before 1950
      • Li Keran
      • Wu Guanzhong
      • Zao Wou-Ki
      • Cui Ruzhuo
    • Chinese Porcelain >
      • Song to Yuan Porcelain
      • Ming Porcelain
      • Qing Porcelain
    • Chinese Art
    • Mountains in China
    • Chinese Calligraphy
    • Chinese Furniture
    • Imperial Seal
    • Chinese Dragon
    • Jadeite
  • India
    • Gaitonde
    • Modern India
  • Persia
    • Safavid Carpets
  • Yoshitomo Nara
  • Russia and Eastern Europe
    • Russia 1700-1900
    • Kandinsky
    • Brancusi
    • Chagall
    • Soutine
    • Ghenie
  • Munch
    • Prints by Munch
  • Egypt
  • Tropical Africa
    • Congo
    • Gabon
    • Mask
  • Tribal Oceania
    • Easter Island
  • Australia
    • Colonial Australia
  • Islam
  • Buddhism
    • Early Buddhist Sculpture
    • Tibet and Nepal
  • Judaica
  • Christianity
    • Madonna and Child
  • Cars
    • Birth of Automobile
    • Cars of the 1910s
    • Cars of the 1920s
    • Cars of the 1930s >
      • Cars 1930-33
      • Cars 1934-35
      • Cars 1936-37
      • Cars 1938-39
    • Post War Cars
    • Cars of the 1950s >
      • Cars 1953-54
      • Cars 1955
      • Cars 1956-57
      • Cars 1958-59
    • Cars of the 1960s >
      • Cars 1960-61
      • Cars 1962-63
      • Cars 1964-65
      • Cars 1966-67
    • Cars 1970s 1980s
    • Supercars
    • Hypercars
    • Ferrari >
      • California Spider
      • Big Five
    • Alfa Romeo
    • Mercedes-Benz
    • Porsche
    • Aston Martin
    • Jaguar
    • McLaren
    • Bugatti
    • French Cars
    • Duesenberg
    • Ford and Shelby
    • Cars in Movies
  • Motorcycles
  • Jewels
    • White Diamond
    • Pink Diamond
    • Blue Diamond
    • Jewels - 2nd page
    • Cartier
  • Silverware
    • Old Silverware
  • Coin
    • Antique Coins >
      • Roman Coins
    • Coins 1000-1775
    • Coins 1776-92
    • Coins 1793-1819
    • Coins 1820-49
    • Coins 1850-69
    • Coins 1870-99
    • 20th century Coins
    • US Gold Coins
    • Silver Dollar
    • Cent and Dime
    • British Coins
    • Japanese Coins
    • Chinese Coins
  • Paper Currency
  • Medal and Decoration
  • Time Pieces
    • Clocks >
      • Old Clocks
    • Mechanical Craft ca 1800
    • Jaquet-Droz and Followers
    • Modern Watches
    • New Watches >
      • OnlyWatch
    • Patek Philippe >
      • Patek Philippe before 1950
      • World Time
      • Perpetual Calendar
    • Rolex
    • French Time Pieces
    • Daniels
  • Glass and Crystal
    • Glass before 1900
    • Tiffany Studios
  • Terracotta and Porcelain
    • Meissen
  • Textiles
  • Books
    • Incunabula
    • 16th Century Books
    • 17th Century Books
    • Fine Books 1700-1850
    • The Birds of America
  • Literature
    • Literature in French
  • Poems and Lyrics
  • Autograph
  • Manuscript
    • Paleography
    • Illuminated Christian Manuscript
  • Political Writing
  • Comic Books
  • Illustration Art
    • Tintin
  • Travel
  • Ancient Maps
  • Space
  • Movies
  • Screen Worn
  • Music
  • Musical Instrument
    • Stradivarius
    • Violin 2nd page
    • Guitar
    • Chinese Instrument
  • The Beatles
  • Poster
  • Sport
    • Sport Equipment
    • Sport Document
    • Sport Rewards
    • Sport Cards >
      • Sport Images before 1942
      • T206 Wagner
      • Babe Ruth Cards
      • Sport Cards 1942-92
      • Topps Mantle
      • Modern Sport Cards
    • Baseball >
      • Baseball Bat
      • Baseball Jersey
      • Babe Ruth
      • Lou Gehrig
    • Basketball >
      • Michael Jordan
      • Kobe Bryant
    • Ice Hockey
    • Sport 2nd page
  • Olympic Games
  • Origins of Sports
  • Historical Arms
    • Blade and Armour
    • Colt in Lifetime
    • Later Colts
    • Winchester
    • Firearms
  • Toys
  • Doll
  • Games
  • Stamps
    • US Stamps
    • Inverted Jenny
  • Inventions
  • Leica
  • Sciences
    • Ancient Science
    • Sciences 1600-1800
    • Astronomy
    • Physics
    • Medicine
  • Dinosaur
  • Computing
  • Nobel Medals
    • Nobel in Medicine
  • Whisky
    • Whisky 2nd page
  • Wine
  • Plus
    • Plus 17C Art
    • Plus 18C Art
    • Plus 1910s
    • Plus 1982 Basquiat
    • Plus Ferrari
    • Plus US Cars
    • Plus Qing Porcelain
    • Plus Tribal
  • Work in Progress

Amedeo MODIGLIANI (1884-1920)

Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
​See also : Top 10  Italy  Sculpture  Bust  Italian sculpture  The Woman  Children  Nude
Chronology : 20th century  1910-1919  1911  1917  1918  1919

Tête
Intro

Amedeo Modigliani is a young Italian immigrant who is learning the tendencies of modern art in Paris at the Bateau-Lavoir. From his meeting with Brancusi he discovers the sculpture in direct carving, perfectly suited to his skills : Modi operates quickly and without rework. 

Brancusi is one of the greatest innovators of sculpture. Reacting against the realistic details of clay and bronze, he is the first to seek beauty through basic and simplified forms that will lead him up to abstraction. 

Modigliani is easily convinced by Brancusi that the direct stone carving may bring an utmost purity to art. Opposed to Rodin's realism, the two artists are attempting a conceptual art that their detractors include in the Cubism still highly disputed at that time.

From 1909 to 1914 Modigliani is obsessed with a unique project : to build a temple dedicated to feminine beauty. To provide a roof for his monument, he tirelessly draws figures of cariatides which he calls his columns of tenderness.

Brancusi and Modigliani find inspiration for their new styles in the antique and African arts. In 1910, Modi draws women topped with a tablette in reference to the Caryatids of the Erechtheion. 


Around 1911 he finally exerts his indisputable skills for sculpture in a series of limestone and sandstone women's heads. These elongated heads with a long neck on a cubic base are similar to each other but details of the faces are different. His series of busts made ​​in 1911 and 1912 will prepare his temple of art. The varied heights show that its overall design is far from fixed.

Art critics have searched for models and styles that have inspired the timeless beauty of Modigliani's women's heads. They are indeed a synthesis of all ages and all civilizations. They are simple as the Cycladic idols, noble as queens of Egypt, Mannerist as a Botticelli, mysterious as African masks, serene as deities, geometric like the art of his friend Brancusi. They are designed to be viewed as a group, such as the Cariatides of a Greek temple.

Modi is not yet famous. He uses limestone blocks taken from construction sites and carries them in a wheelbarrow to his modest studio in Montparnasse. His heads of women create around him a crowd of pure and stylized faces with the intense force of a tribal ceremony.


He carved about 25 heads. In 1911 five of them are recognizable by photography in his solo exhibition organized with the help of Brancusi in the vast workshop of Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. In 1912 the Salon d'Automne aligns seven heads in the Cubist Hall. Only the artist in his small studio in Montparnasse, or some friends at an exhibition in 1911 or 1912, could breathe the mystical atmosphere of the whole.

In 1913 Modigliani feels that his project of temple is ready. He chooses to use marble and visits Carrara. He carved only one caryatid. His fragile health will not allow him to do more. He abandons his great project and becomes a portrait painter again. The bust heads were dispersed.

Modigliani carved the stone in direct cut. In 1914 he had to give up his vocation as a sculptor for reasons of health and money. His brush was as skilled as his chisel to express the purity of the curves, and he became the best portrait painter of Montparnasse.

1
1911-1912
2014 SOLD for $ 71M by Sotheby's

On November 4, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 71M from an estimate in excess of $ 45M a bust 73 cm high including the base, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. This specimen had been exhibited at the Salon d'Automne.
Sculpture
Italian Sculpture
Bust
1911

2
1911
2010 SOLD for € 43M by Christie's

One of these statues, made of Parisian limestone, 64 cm high including the cubic base, was sold for € 43M from a lower estimate of € 4M by Christie's on June 14, 2010.  It is shared in an article in French by Le Figaro.

This specimen had been exhibited by Souza-Cardoso and at the Salon d'Automne.​

3
​1911-1912
​2019 SOLD for $ 34M by Christie's

A 51 cm high Tête carved in limestone around 1911-1912 with no early exhibition history was sold for $ 34M by Christie's on May 13, 2019, lot 31A.

On May 13 we will offer Amedeo Modigliani’s limestone sculpture, 'Tête', circa 1911-1912, in our New York Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art.

Find out more: https://t.co/gMtuCZPqy8 pic.twitter.com/Tia9YIKeZC

— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) April 18, 2019

Nu
​Intro

From 1909 to 1913 Amedeo Modigliani had worked almost exclusively in sculpture. His poor health made him returning to oil painting, executing portraits of fellow Montparnasse artists with their heads deformed by cubism.

Beatrice Hastings, the highly unconventional "poétesse anglaise", arrives in Montparnasse in 1914, appealed by the bohemian life, and begins an affair with Modigliani. They part from one another in 1916 after two years of debauchery and quarrels.

This short period built the image of a villain Modigliani as a temperamental artist, an Italian womanizer, a heavy drinker, defined by Beatrice as altogether a swine and a pearl. A few years later his fair behavior with Jeanne Hébuterne will not be sufficient to rehabilitate him.

Amedeo painted 14 portraits of Beatrice in all the features of her excessive temper, from charming or vulnerable to arrogant or witty. She wore in a ball a trompe l'oeil dress painted by him on her naked body.

Beatrice Hastings devant une porte is a half length portrait painted in 1915 in the stylized pose of his former sculpted ideal women and caryatids. A gentle and elegant Beatrice has an elongated neck and wears a stylish plumed hat. This oil on canvas 81 x 46 cm was sold for $ 17.6M  by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 9.

In 1916 Zborowski takes Amedeo's career in his hands, adding his many friends to the list of models.


Modigliani was a prolific draftsman. He had learned during his artistic training to draw quickly. Close to the conceptions of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where he will soon meet Jeanne, he knows how to carry out speedy studies of female nudes in poses where the natural prevails over the conventional.

Zbo organizes paintings of nudes by Modi. He chooses pretty women whom he leads into an apartment-workshop where he has installed Modigliani. The artist is paid 15 francs a day and the model 5 francs for the session.

The rest is easy to imagine. The woman has won her 5 francs and is in a hurry to leave. The artist has little time. His painting is based on a drawing that brings to his best images a great spontaneity. The bare skin partitioned by the lines is painted in a warm color. The woman is lying or sitting on the bed, very simply, without decoration and without narrative effect.

1
​1917 Nu couché sur le côté
2018 SOLD for $ 157M by Sotheby's

Nu couché sur le côté, oil on canvas 90 x 147 cm painted in 1917, was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on November 4, 2003 and for $ 157M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2018, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

​It is the largest painting in this series and the only reclining nude by Modigliani to be displayed in all the extent of her arms and legs.


The attitude is not very erotic. The woman is seen from behind. The head turned for looking at the artist and the firmly sealed mouth reveal some impatience.

2
​1917 La Belle Romaine
2010 SOLD for $ 69M by Sotheby's

In 1917, having abandoned the sculpture, Modigliani focuses on the painting of the nude to express his vision of the ideal woman. Sometimes the model is standing or lying, but the woman sitting naked on a couch, known as La Belle Romaine, is undoubtedly one of the best.

This oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm shows a woman happy to be watched, confident, intimate. The painter is quite successful, with a purity of line and a warm tone of flesh which is the top of his art.

Paris was quite prudish at that time, having probably already forgotten the friend women of Toulouse-Lautrec, and the exhibition of Modigliani's nudes at the Galerie Berthe Weill was forbidden for indecency at its opening. Our painting was perhaps one of them. Modigliani, a true great artist, had not deigned considering the academic decorum.

On November 20, 1987, the Parisian art market suddenly started to rise with the fabulous Georges Renand collection. La Belle Romaine, sold for FF 41M, tripled the French auction record and leaved for Asia. At the same sale the other Modigliani owned by Renand, a Woman with Black Tie, was sold for FF 34M.

La Belle Romaine was sold by Sotheby's for $ 16.8M on November 11, 1999 and for $ 69M on November 2, 2010. 
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Amadeo Modigliani 063

3
​​1917-1918 Nudo Rosso
​2015 SOLD for $ 170M by Christie's

The still young artist endeavors to show the perfect woman while going beyond his own life plagued by tuberculosis and alcohol. Around 1911, the heads carved by Modigliani transcend all artistic styles.

In 1917, he found that ideal in the nude. He has no money but that does not mind. His small workshop contains two chairs, a sofa and a bottle of cognac. He is alone with a girl paid by his dealer. Zborowski had a good perception : the girls are pretty. Around them is war. The time is not conducive to shameless exhibits. Modigliani's nudes are a scandal.

Amedeo is a nice guy. He establishes empathy with those anonymous visitors for a day. He expresses tenderness and intimacy better than any other artist. He obtained this effect by a subtle color work. Pink is not warm enough to express the skin: the artist creates rich colors tending to reddish or apricot.

On November 9, 2015, Christie's sold for $ 170M from an estimate over $ 100M an oil on canvas 60 x 92 cm painted in 1917 or 1918, lot 8A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. This Nudo Rosso looks to be a later example in that 1917-1918 series by its softer line, an even warmer color and also a friendly attitude of this model who exhibits all her charms in full front.

The voluptuous curves emphasizes the confidence of the model with her back slightly arched above the couch and her outstretched arms. Eyes without pupils are monochrome, enabling the viewer to better capture the quiet waiting of her gaze. The wild locks on the forehead indicate that this ideal woman is a character from real life and not a model prepared for art.
Top 10
The Woman
Nude
Italy
20th Century
Decade 1910-1919
1917

1918 Le Fils du Concierge
2006 SOLD for $ 31M by Sotheby's​

The young foreign artists who settled in Paris had not foreseen the war. Zborowski, arrived from Poland around 1910, takes their destiny in hand. Zbo and his wife organize in April 1918 the exodus to Cagnes-sur-Mer of Modigliani with his friend Jeanne and her mother, Foujita and his wife Fernande, and Soutine.

The group works for Zbo, and everyone is experimenting with new themes or styles. Soutine transfers his imbalances to the landscape. Foujita meets the old Renoir.

Modigliani observes the working classes of the Côte d'Azur, and is particularly interested in the psychological freshness of children.

Attitudes are stereotypical. The model strikes a pose seated quietly in a chair, hands clasped, and looks straight ahead. The less shy have their heads bowed to a side and their eyes are more lively. The variety of faces demonstrates the intention of stylized realism. They have in common with the nude women of Montparnasse that they arouse a strong but temporary empathy in the artist.

Le Fils du Concierge is identified by his father's occupation. He is a young son of the keeper of the villa where Modigliani resides. This oil on canvas 92 x 60 cm painted in 1918 was sold for $ 31M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006 from a lower estimate of $ 14M, lot 38. The image is shared by Wikimedia.

Two other portraits from the same year in the same format were sold by Sotheby's. One of them, showing a boy of about the same age, was sold for £ 18.4M on June 19, 2019. Garçon à la veste bleue was sold for £ 6.2M on June 21, 2004.

Jeune homme roux assis, oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm painted in 1919, is in the follow of the series of seated young people by Modigliani. The handsome red haired guy between adolescence and a confident adulthood does not belong to the working class. The eyes are filled in cerulean blue.

​It was sold for $ 17.6M by Christie's on May 6, 2014
, lot 5. On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 16.4M Jeune Fille en bleu, lot 1023. This oil on canvas 100 x 64 cm was painted in soft tones throughout, in 1919, probably before they left the Riviera.
Amedeo Modigliani - Le Fils du Concierge
1918

1919 Jeanne
​Intro

Amedeo and Jeanne entered together into the legend. When they met in 1917, Amedeo was 33 years old and Jeanne was 19. She sacrifices her desire to become an artist and becomes the companion of the cursed painter, alcoholic, drug addict, consumptive and moreover a Jew in a society that was not tolerant.

​They came back from Nice to Paris in May 1919 with their baby Giovanna. Helped by Zborowski, he set up his studio rue de la Grande Chaumière. Peace had returned and a period of great creativity begins for the artist.

In 1919, 
Amedeo Modigliani is again able to reveal the ideal woman, as in the time of his sculpted heads of 1911 and 1912. Since he then had to give up sculpture because of his failing health, Amedeo is primarily a portrait painter. His models are the people around him in the art world of Montparnasse and humble fellows who cannot be his customers. His paintings are difficult to sell.

The sensual nudes painted in 1917 had brought a sinuous outline of the women's body. The harmony of rare warm colors provides comfort and kindness. The interpretation of that hypersensitive artist as a wild guy is definitely wrong.


The portraits of seated models at the Grande Chaumière are set up similarly with small variations in the position of the hands and the orientation of the head. The format of the canvas increases, close to life size.

The portraits by Amedeo of his intimates are recognizable but they are not realistic because they must represent an absolute. Small in life, Jeanne is tall for Amedeo. Her green eyes become intensely blue to express innocence and fidelity. The arms become more elongated with gestures that are altogether expressive and quiet and above all typically feminine.

1
1919 au Chapeau
2013 SOLD for £ 27M by Christie's

When Amedeo Modigliani paints the portraits of his friends, he idealizes the forms which he can no longer express through the sculpture that has become too tiring for his fragile health. And the perfect line, the charming sinuosity, the elongation of bodies are not the rediscovery of mannerism but the direct extension of his inspiration as a sculptor.

Jeanne is his muse. He met this nice girl in 1917 when she was 19 years old. Madly in love, he shows an ideal Jeanne, as he would like her to be.

In 1919, when Amedeo paints Jeanne Hébuterne au chapeau, the young woman has already born him a daughter, also named Jeanne. This oil on canvas, 92 x 54 cm, is an invitation to communicate. The gesture is nice, the pastel-like background is discreet, the eye position is straightforward.

These eyes which are the strong point of the image are nearly uniformly blue, as if the face so alive elsewhere of the sitter was only a mask to a dreamlike sky. The ongoing process of Modigliani to the representation of the ideal woman has led to this ultimate detail that makes him, quite unexpectedly, a precursor of surrealism.

Jeanne au chapeau was sold for £ 16.4M by Sotheby's on 19 June 2006 and for £ 27M by Christie's on February 6, 2013. Please watch the video shared by Christie's.

2
​later 1919 au Foulard
​2016 SOLD for £ 38.5M by Sotheby's

On June 21, 2016, Sotheby's sold for £ 38.5M at lot 12 the portrait of Jeanne au foulard (with scarf), oil on canvas 92 x 54 cm painted by Amedeo in 1919. ​Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
​

The muse does not laugh : her mouth is again sulky, as in her other portraits. The specificity of this artwork is in the eyes drawn with visible pupils, increasing the emotional presence of the young woman just as if Amedeo had just decided to abandon his signature uniformly blue eyes. This painting could be one of the last portraits of Jeanne.

Jeanne devant une porte is a three quarter length portrait by 
Modigliani of Jeanne Hébuterne in 1919 while she was pregnant of their second child. The eyes are filled in blue and she wears the strict clothing of a young mother. ​Her attitude is sad.

This oil on canvas has an unusual large size for that series, 130 x 80 cm. This is one of the latest portraits of Jeanne and arguably the most poignant. The head is heavily bent to her left. A scientific analysis based on pictures and photos concluded in 2018 that the poor young woman was suffering of cervical dystomia.

It was sold for $ 31M by Sotheby's on November 4, 2004, 
lot 23.

Jeanne committed suicide in January 1920, still in the same pregnancy, two days after Amedeo's death.

The greatest and most tragic #love story in #art history? #Modigliani's tribute to Jeanne https://t.co/Zyv622WeXg pic.twitter.com/uycU1vGQ5d

— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 5, 2016
1919

1919 Paulette
​​2015 SOLD for $ 43M by Sotheby's

Amedeo Modigliani came back from Nice to Paris in May 1919 with Jeanne and their baby Giovanna. Helped by Zborowski, he set up his studio rue de la Grande Chaumière. Peace had returned and a period of great creativity begins for the artist.

Since he had to give up sculpture because of his failing health, Amedeo is primarily a portrait painter. His models are the people around him in the art world of Montparnasse and humble fellows who cannot be his customers. His paintings are difficult to sell.

The portraits of seated models at the Grande Chaumière are set up similarly with small variations in the position of the hands and the orientation of the head. The format of the canvas increases, close to life size. Amedeo also works on the harmony of rare colors.

When Paulette Jourdain arrives at Montparnasse, she is a still a child at only 15 year old. She obtains to work as a housemaid for Zborowski. She is the last model of Amedeo in 1919, for a unique painting, just before he died in January 1920.

The three-quarter-length format with the hands clasped gently by her lap are direct references for Leonardo's Mona Lisa that Amedeo used to admire in Le Louvre while the impenetrable expression on her face also expresses a shyness of the girl.

The search for expression is dominant over realism with two signature innovations in Amedeo's art : a tall neck creating a neat distance between head and body and the eyes completely filled in blue that announce surrealism and are certainly a proof of kindness of the artist for his model in the stiff attitude of a teenager.

This portrait, oil on canvas 100 x 65 cm, was sold by Sotheby's for $ 43M on November 4, 2015, lot 12T in the sale of the Taubman collection, and for HK $ 273M on October 5, 2023, lot 8512. Please watch the video shared in 2015 by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
​
Paulette Jourdain had a lifelong involvement in art. She opened a gallery after Zbo's death in 1932.
Amedeo Modigliani - Paulette Jourdain
Children
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.