Thirty years after Jeanne Hébuterne’s death, an art scholar convinced her family to display her paintings. In 2000, after some struggles, some of her artwork were displayed at a major Modigliani exhibition in Italy, however in 2010, it was claimed that 77 of the drawings were forged, and the curator was convicted. Fortunately, it was later revealed that the drawings were actually the original drawings of hers.
Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian modern artist and sculptor known for his unique style in his artwork, which was made up of simplified and elongated forms. He’s most famous for his portraits and sculptures of women that are still admired and highly valued to this day. In his artwork, he portrayed sadistic and melancholic emotions intentionally, with great elegance in each and every detail. During this article, you will be able to see many instances in his life, like abusing drugs and alcohol, that contributed to his tragic death at just 35 years young. You will also learn about his life growing up in Livorno, Italy, a teenager enrolled in a talented art school, and later a young man with an incredible career in Paris, France, pursuing his dream of becoming a renowned artist. How do you think Modigliani’s death came to be? Do you believe he died with a legacy to his name, or was his impact recognized later on? How do you think his art style will evolve as he grows up?
His Upbringing…
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was born on July 12, 1884 into a Jewish family in Livorno, Italy. Livorno was a port city and was home at the time to a large community of Jews and people who were treated unfairly because of their religion. Solomon Garsin, Modigliani’s maternal great-great-grandfather, had immigrated there as a refugee in the 1700s. His father, Flaminio, on the other hand, was raised in a family full of successful business owners with Flaminio later becoming a wealthy mining engineer himself. He controlled a mine in Sardinia, the 2nd largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and managed the almost 30,000 acres of timberland his family owned. The family’s business was believed to be a credit agency with branches extending in Livorno, Marseille, Tunis, and London. In 1883, the price of metal suddenly dropped, which caused the family to almost go into bankruptcy. As a result, Modigliani’s mother, Eugénie Garsin, and two of Modigliani’s aunts, established a successful school of Talmudic studies. Her ancestors were fluent in multiple languages, and were well known authorities on sacred Jewish texts. His mother, who was born and raised in Marseille, Paris, belonged to a scholarly family with generations of Sephardic Jews.
To turn your attention back to the family’s near bankruptcy, Amedeo Modigliani’s birth coincided with the financial downfall of his father’s business interests, which had surprisingly saved his family from becoming broke. According to an ancient European law, creditors could not seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. The bailiffs entered the family’s home just as his mother went into labour. So, the family protected their valuables by cleverly piling them on top of her bed.
Modigliani was known for drawing and painting at a very young age. Modigliani was close with his mother, who had home schooled him until he was 10 years old. His mother was very much in agreement with him using his art skills in his future career and in fact, when he was 11 years old, she had written the following in her diary: “The child’s character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?”
He dealt with a lot of health problems after an attack of pleurisy that same year which later developed into a case of typhoid fever. At 14 years old, while still sick with typhoid fever, he dreamed of seeing the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence up close in person. Livorno’s local museum had only a few paintings by Italian Renaissance artists, which made the tales he’d hear about the great works even harder to not intrigue him, despite being in a bad physical state. When he was 16 years old, he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis before recovering from his second round of pleurisy. His mother then took him on a tour of Italy that included locations like Naples, Capri, Rome, Amalfi, Florence and Venice to see his favorite artwork up close. Not only did she fulfill his dream of seeing the artwork in person, she went out of her way to enroll him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli. Based on his mother’s efforts, it’s evident that she played a big role in Modigliani’s life.
His Art Career
Modigliani worked in Micheli’s Art School from 1898 to 1900 that was owned by Gionvanni Micheli. While he was in Rome, The Macchiaioli movement was a group compiled of 19th century Italian painters who focused on capturing the effects of light and color through bold, messy brushstrokes, creating a foundation for Impressionism. Modigliani admired the work of Domenico Morelli because he painted several dramatic religious and literary scenes. Morelli was a major inspiration for this unappreciated style at the time. Modigliani preferred to paint inside in his own studio and as a young kid, he was exposed to a bunch of philosophical literature by his maternal grandfather, Isaco Garsin. Literature that influenced his art were the writings of Nietzsche, Baudelaire, Carducci, Comte de Lautréamont, and others that strongly believed the only way to true creativity was through “defiance and disorder”. The work of Lautréamont was Modigliani’s favourite that he even took the time to learn them by memory. The poetry of Lautréamont contained surreal and dark sadistic imagery which helped teenage Modigliani develop his own style of art. Baudelaire and D’Annunzio also helped inspire Modigliani because of their symbolism, imagery and beauty.
Some of Amedeo Modigliani's most famous artwork. [left: "Head", 1911–1912 ] [right: "Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne" ( The artist's wife), 1918.]
Modigliani later befriended Jacob Epstein because of their shared vision of creating a “Temple of Beauty” for the public. He even created drawings and paintings of stone caryatids for “The Pillars of Tenderness” that would’ve been used to support the temple. Modigliani later settled near Le Bateau-Lavoir, a residence famous for housing broke artists in Montmartre, and rented a studio in Rue Caulaincourt to work on his art. This location was seen as an area full of poverty, however Modigliani tried to make it look like his family had lost all of their wealth and money, so he had to move there. He tried to continue this lie by wearing neat and clean clothes, yet not too flashy or elegant, in order to not out himself.
Modigliani’s first one-man exhibition opened at the Berthe Weill Gallery on December 3, 1917. The chief of the Paris police was shocked by Modigliani’s nude paintings and forced him to close the exhibition a few hours after opening it for the public.
Who was Jeanne Hébuterne?
Jeanne Hébuterne was a French painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was born on April 6, 1898 in Meaux, France. Her artwork was considered expressionist. She was the second child to Achille Casimir Hébuterne. Hébuterne was introduced to the artistic community of Montparnasse by her older brother André Hébuterne who was also a painter. She was a gentle, timid, and kind young woman, full of talent. So, she chose to study at the Acadèmie Colarossi in 1917. There, she would meet Modigliani. They fell deeply in love and began a relationship. Hébuterne became Modigliani’s ultimate muse, and the main subject of his portraits and artwork. Very soon she decided to move in with him, leaving her devout Roman Catholic family despite their disapproval of their relationship because of Modigliani’s bad reputation and Jewish heritage. After Modigliani and Hébuterne moved to Nice, France, on November 29th, 1918, she gave birth to a daughter and named her Jeanne 1918. In May 1919 Modigliani returned to Paris, where he rented an apartment with his newborn and new wife.
Some of Jeanne Hébuterne's most famous pieces. [left: "Self Portrait", (1917)] [right: "Self Portrait", (1916)] | Daily Dose of Art
Modigliani was also known for his unique attitude when it comes to art itself. Here are some of his most iconic quotes from when he was alive:
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- “With one eye you are looking at the outside world, while with the other you are looking within yourself”
- “When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes”
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- “It is your duty in life to save your dreams”
- “The function of art is to struggle against obligation”
- “What I look for is neither reality nor unreality but the subconscious, the instinctive mystery of the human race”
- “admirable”, one of Modigliani’s favorite adjectives.
Death at 35…
In Paris, he discovered the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and Picasso, which helped inspire his own artwork in their own ways. Within a year in Paris, however, his attitude and reputation had changed dramatically. Not only did he remove all the decoration he deemed middle-class from his studio, he even destroyed almost all of his own early work claiming it was “Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois…” During this time, he kept working nonstop, constantly sketching and making almost 100 drawings a day. Unfortunately, some were lost, destroyed by him in anger, or given to girlfriends who didn’t even keep or care for them. The motivation for his sudden enraged rejections of his past self was also because he was trying so hard to make a sort of persona for himself, but instead unintentionally made his reputation as a hopeless drunk and aggressive drug user. While drunk, he was known to sometimes strip himself naked in front of everyone in social gatherings. His escalating use of drugs, like hashish and alcohol, such as absinthe, combined with his plenty of affairs and his masking of his worsening condition of Tuberculosis from his close ones lead to his death on January 24th, 1920. He was found with Hébuterne, who was almost nine months pregnant, holding his hand on his deathbed, comforting him.
They got a doctor, but little could be done because he was in the final stage of tubercular meningitis. There was also no solid cure at the time, and those who had it were feared, shunned, and isolated from the public. Modigliani lived on friendships and would not let himself be isolated from others. He even tried to enlist in the Italian army, however, he was refused because of his poor health. He tried his all to hide his coughs and any other recognizable signs of his condition that was slowly, but surely, consuming him. Modigliani used alcohol and drugs to ease all of his pain, helping him to maintain a fake reality to dedicate his time to his artwork. Two days after his death, Hébuterne threw herself out of a fifth-floor window, instantly killing her and her unborn 9 month old baby. After struggling with Hébuterne’s family, both her and her late husband were honored together in a singular tombstone and grave. His reads “Struck down by Death at the moment of glory.” Hers reads “Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice.”
Modigliani’s Impact
During Modigliani’s lifetime, he sold a good amount of his artwork, however he was never payed sufficiently for them. What very little money he got from them was later spent on drugs and alcohol. Despite his bad reputation and poor choices, he made a great impact in the art world, even after his death that was over 100 years ago. After reading this showcasing of his life and artwork, what sort of influences can be drawn from Modigliani’s own artwork? In what ways were his own personal struggles and knowledge contributing to his artwork? Do you believe Modigliani helped advance Modern and Expressionist art during his time? Thank you for following along and do not forget to click the comment button on the right-hand side to share your opinions and critiques on this matter! Tune in for more Beyond the Canvas articles.
Sources:
- https://www.modigliani.org/biography.jsp
- https://arthistory.co/amedeo-modigliani-quotes/
- https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/detail/M.1975.13.2.P
- https://en.artsdot.com/@@/8YDNSL-Amedeo-Clemente-Modigliani-Portrait-of-a-Girl-%28also-known-as-Victoria%29
- https://womennart.com/2020/06/24/who-was-jeanne-hebuterne/
- https://www.myddoa.com/artists/jeanne-hebuterne/
- https://byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2023/04/06/jeanne-hebuternes-birthday-the-thought-of-him-fills-every-room-every-space-i-go-and-replaces-the-air-in-my-lungs/
- https://www.pubhist.com/w6078
- https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/35/modigliani-portraits-of-jeanne-hebuterne-selected-technical-and-material-study
