Amedeo Modigliani biography and paintings. Amadeo Modigliani

The famous painter Amedeo Modigliani was born in 1884 in Livorno, in what was then the Kingdom of Italy. His parents were Sephardic Jews and there were four children in the family. Amedeo or Jedidia (that was his real name) was the smallest. He was destined to become one of the most famous artists of the end of the century before last and the beginning of the last century, a prominent representative of the art of expressionism.

During his very short life, and he lived only 35 years, the artist managed to reach heights that were inaccessible to many other people who lived to advanced years. He burned very brightly, despite the lung disease that ate him. At the age of 11, the boy contracted pleurisy and then typhus. This is a very serious disease, after which many did not survive. But Amedeo survived, although it cost him his health. Physical weakness did not prevent the development of his genius, although it brought a handsome young man to the grave.

Modigliani lived his childhood and youth in. In this country, the environment itself and numerous monuments helped to study ancient art. The sphere of interests of the future artist also included the art of the Renaissance, which helped him in his further development and largely influenced his perception of reality.

The time when Modigliani was formed as a person and as an artist gave the world many talented masters. During this period, the attitude to the art of the past was revised, and new artistic currents and directions. Having moved to 1906, the future master found himself in the thick of the seething events.

Like the masters of the Renaissance, Modigliani was primarily interested in people, not objects. Only a few landscapes survived in his creative heritage, while other genres of painting did not interest him at all. In addition, until 1914, he devoted himself almost exclusively to sculpture. In Paris, Modigliani met and became friends with numerous representatives of Bohemia, including Maurice Utrillo and Ludwig Meidner.

In his works, references to the art of the Renaissance period are periodically visible, as well as the undoubted influence African traditions in art. Modigliani has always stood aloof from all recognizable fashion trends, his work is a real phenomenon in the history of art. Unfortunately, very little documentary evidence and stories have been preserved about the life of the artist, which can be 100% trusted. During his lifetime, the master did not understand him and did not appreciate him at all, the paintings were not sold. But after his death in 1920 from meningitis, provoked by tuberculosis, the world realized that he had lost a genius. If he could see it, he would appreciate the irony of fate. Paintings that during his lifetime did not even bring him a piece of bread, at the beginning of the 21st century went under the hammer for fabulous sums, amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Truly, to become great, one must die in poverty and obscurity.

Modigliani's sculptures have much in common with African ones, but are by no means mere copies. This is a rethinking of a special ethnic style superimposed on modern realities. The faces of his statues are simple and extremely stylized, while they retain their individuality in the most amazing way.

Picturesque works of Modigliani are usually attributed to expressionism, but nothing in his work can be interpreted unambiguously. He was one of the first to bring emotions into paintings with naked female bodies - nudes. They have both eroticism and sex appeal, but not abstract, but completely real, ordinary. On the canvases of Modigliani, not ideal beauties are depicted, but living women with bodies devoid of perfection, which is why they are attractive. It was these paintings that began to be perceived as the pinnacle of the artist's work, his unique achievement.

Biography of Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani (Modigliani, Amedeo) (1884–1920), prominent italian painter and sculptor . Born July 12, 1884 in Livorno. After studying at the school of painting in Livorno under G. Micheli, in 1902 Modigliani entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, and a little later - at the Academy in Venice.

At the beginning of 1906 he arrived in Paris, where he began to search for a modern artistic language. He was influenced by P. Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, P. Picasso, Fauvism and Cubism, but eventually developed own style, which is characterized by a rich and dense color.

In November 1907, Modigliani met Dr. Paul Alexander, who rented a studio for him and became the first collector of his work. The artist became a member of the Independent group and in 1908 and 1910 exhibited his work in their salon.

Acquaintance with the sculptor Constantin Brancusi in 1909 played a fundamental role in the development of Modigliani's sculptural work. From Brancusi, Modigliani received support and valuable advice. During these years, Modigliani was mainly engaged in sculpture and the study of works of classical antiquity, Indian and African plastics. In 1912 he exhibited seven sculptures at the Salon d'Automne.

With the outbreak of World War I, many of Modigliani's friends left Paris. The artist was oppressed by changes in life, unemployment, poverty. During this time, he met the English poet Beatrice Hastings, with whom he lived for two years. Modigliani was friends with such diverse artists as Picasso, Chaim Soutine and Maurice Utrillo, as well as with collectors and business people - Paul Guillaume and Leopold Zborowski. The latter became the patron of the artist 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 a striking subtlety of psychological characterization. Later, the formal side of his work becomes more and more simple and classical, reduced to a combination of graphic and color rhythms.

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. The following year, Zborowski organized a personal exhibition of the artist at the Bertha Weil Gallery. She was not successful, but caused a scandal with several images of nudity: they were considered indecent, and at the request of the police, the canvases 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's works combine purity and refinement of style, symbolism and humanism, a pagan sense of fullness and unbridled joy of life, and a pathetic experience of the torment of an always restless conscience.

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Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Mariupol State University

History department

Theme: Amedeo Modigliani

Performed:

student Solieva M.

Teacher:

Mariupol2013

Introduction

1. Life and era

2. Creativity

3. Famous works

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

At the beginning of 1906, among the young artists, writers, actors who lived in Montmartre as a kind of colony, in which everyone, one way or another, knew each other, a new figure appeared and immediately attracted attention. It was Amedeo Modigliani, who had just arrived from Italy and settled in the rue Caulaincourt, in a small workshop shed in the middle of a wasteland overgrown with bushes, which they called “poppies” and just then began to build up new houses. He was twenty-two years old. He was dazzlingly handsome, but apparently attracted to him with something even more unusual. Many of those who met him then for the first time remembered, first of all, the feverish gleam of large black, point-blank eyes on a dull, swarthy face. The low voice seemed "hot", the gait - flying, and the whole appearance - strong and harmonious.

The last of the Bohemian Mohicans, Amedeo Modigliani, lived a completely bohemian life. Poverty, illness, alcohol, drugs, sleepless nights, promiscuity were his constant companions. But this did not prevent him from becoming the greatest innovative artist who created the unique "world of Modigliani."1

We do not have Modigliani either in museums or in private collections (a few surviving drawings, of course, in no way fill this gap). In the early 1920s, when there was a spontaneous and mostly speculative marauding "distribution" of his paintings on the world art market, our country lived so hard that it had no time to worry about acquiring the latest Western painting.2 Modigliani was represented here for the first time in 1928 tolu at one of the exhibitions foreign art. After a long break, a few of his portraits appeared several times at exhibitions of works from museum and private collections in the United States, France, and Japan.

It is characteristic that, despite such a variety of works on Modigliani, Western art historians are increasingly expressing the opinion that his work still needs to be studied in more depth, that he has not yet been fully understood and not evaluated objectively enough. You really involuntarily think about this when you get acquainted with his works and at the same time read at least all the best that is written about him. It is hard not to notice that even the most serious, professionally sharp analysis of his work in the West is still limited mainly to problems of "pure form". It is considered abstractly and scrupulously in order to establish either the traditionalism or the originality of the techniques of his skill. Considered, as it were, in an airless space, in a forcibly closed sphere, these techniques of mastery are either compressed into a soulless protocol, reminiscent of a “case history,” or consistently provide a pretext for unrestricted comparisons, sometimes more or less justified, sometimes arbitrary. With whom only Modigliani is not brought together, whose only influences are not imposed on him! Names and schools are glued to his work in such abundance that to someone he may already seem to be either a general imitator, or an eclectic student - in any case, until, having passed through various "stages", he does not work out, finally, at the behest of another researcher, his own inimitable and inimitable style. And it becomes already difficult in this kaleidoscope of "influences" and "rapprochements" to determine those real sources and hobbies that really illuminated his path and helped him to become himself in art while still very young. It is not clear why his art is forcibly deprived of social and philosophical content. They admire him, praise the beauty of his painting and the elegance of his drawing, brushing aside his spiritual influence.

So, the purpose of this work is to trace the life and creative path of Amedeo Modigliani, and for this it is necessary:

outline the main stages of a short, but eventful, life of the artist;

highlight the work of Modigliani;

analyze the main work of the master.

Working with the literature on this topic, the author notes their limited number, but one can note the increased interest in the work of Modigliani over the past 10-20 years in domestic art history. The most famous Soviet study of the work of this master can be called a monograph by Vilenkin V.Ya. "Amedeo Modigliani". The author of the book introduces the reader to the life and work in detail, offers a deep, but perhaps not entirely objective analysis of the author's works. Werner's work "Amedeo Modigliani" is more objective, it also contains many interesting facts about the life of Modigliani, an analysis of the works, but more concise, but unlike Vilenkin's work contains a large number of color and black and white illustrations. The most complete collection of reproductions of Modigliani's works, in our opinion, is contained in the book “The World of Masterpieces. 100 world names in art. In addition to reproductions, the book contains a large introductory article with detailed biography of Amedeo Modigliani and brief analysis works.

1. Life and era

Amedeo Modigliani was born on July 12, 1884 in Livorno, on west coast Italy. His parents came from prosperous Jewish families (one of the grandfathers of the future artist was once a prosperous banker). But the world met the born child unkindly - in the year of Amedeo's birth, his father, Flaminio, went bankrupt, and the family was on the verge of poverty. In this situation, the mother of the future artist, Eugenia, who had an indestructible character, became the true head of the family. She received a very good education, tried her hand at literature, worked as a translator and taught children English and French.

Amedeo was the youngest and most beautiful of the four Modigliani children. The mother did not look for souls in him also because the boy grew up weak. In 1895, he became seriously ill with pleurisy. According to family tradition, Amedeo began to draw only after he was seriously ill with typhoid fever in 1898. The mother said that some unusually picturesque, terrible wandering happened to her son, during which Amedeo described pictures that he had never seen before, and that supposedly it was during his illness that his passion for drawing was discovered. Around this time, Amedeo became seriously interested in drawing. To schoolwork he was completely indifferent and already at the age of fourteen he entered the workshop of the local artist and sculptor G. Micheli as an apprentice.

“Dedo (that was the name of the boy in the family) completely abandoned all his affairs,” his mother wrote in his diary, “and does nothing but draw ... He draws all day long, striking and embarrassing me with his passion. His teacher is very pleased with him. He says that Dedo draws very well for a student who has only studied painting for three months.”

In 1900, when Amedeo fell ill with pleurisy again, foci of tuberculosis were found in his left lung, which later became one of the causes of the artist’s early death. The mother took her son to improve his health on the island of Capri. On the way back, the teenager visited Rome, Florence and Venice. From this trip, letters sent by him to a friend have been preserved - with ardent declarations of love for art and with a mention of beautiful images, "disturbing the imagination." However, they also had something else. In one of his letters from Capri, the young traveler tells of "a walk on a moonlit night with a very attractive Norwegian girl."

In 1902, Modigliani left for Florence, where he entered the painting school. Having moved to Venice in March 1903, he continued his studies at the local Academy. Very few drawings and letters of the artist relating to this period have come down to us. Venice was an ethnically diverse city with rich cultural traditions. But Modigliani, like all young artists of his generation, was attracted to Paris. In January 1906, the 21-year-old artist set foot on the promised land of Paris. His beloved uncle, Amedeo Garcin, who helped him before, had died a year earlier, and now Modigliani received only a modest "stipend" from his mother.

He began wandering around cheap furnished rooms - first in Montmartre, and since 1909 - in Montparnasse, in the quarter of artists. Amedeo was fluent in French and therefore easily acquired Parisian friends, with whom he enjoyed the delights of metropolitan life, not bypassing bars with brothels (Fig. 1).

In November 1907, Modigliani met a young doctor and art lover, Paul Alexander, the first collector of his works. Only the World War separated them (Dr. Alexander was then mobilized to work in a military hospital). It was Alexander who in 1909 brought Modigliani together with the outstanding Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Under the influence of Brancusi, Amedeo became interested in sculpture, abandoning painting for several years (ill. 2,3). However, the dust is so harmful to his weak chest that he is temporarily forced to give up his favorite sculpture. For some time he even visits the Colarossi Academy, and we owe this visit to almost his latest drawings of nude models, made in an academic manner. Then the search for something new begins.

In addition, he is trying to solve the two main tasks facing him: the first is to earn money, and the second is what he wrote about from Rome, “to come to his own truth about life, beauty and art”, that is, to find your topic and find your language. With the first task, he did not cope until the end of his life. His youthfully romantic phrase that "the commoners will never understand us" has found here, alas, its crude concreteness. Not a single Parisian tradesman agreed to buy canvases for anyone famous painter It's too risky an investment.

Bohemian life made itself felt. The artist's health deteriorated. In 1909 and in 1912, Modigliani went to his relatives in Italy to correct him, but, returning to Paris, he again preferred to live as before. He drank Modigliani heavily and often; drunk became unbearable. In a "foggy" state, he could insult a woman, get involved in a scandal, start a fight, even be naked in public. At the same time, almost everyone who knew him well notes that the sober artist was an ordinary person, no different from most people of that time.

Before the First World War, Modigliani settled in the famous "Hive", or otherwise the "Rotonde", without mentioning which not a single story about the life of the legendary Montparnasse artists could do. A clumsy, strange building, which was the pavilion of wines at the World Exhibition of 1900, was dragged by some eccentric benefactor to the land he bought on the cheap almost on the outskirts of Paris and set up a hostel for the homeless and hopeless poor fellow artists. What kind of celebrities did not see through his dirty closets-workshops, more like coffins with flaps over the doors instead of beds. Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall, the French poet Blaise Cendrars lived here, and even our Lunacharsky once visited Modigliani. To this eerie "Hive" Modigliani owes his acquaintance with a man whom he dearly loved and considered one of the greatest artists of his time. This is Chaim Soutine, a small-town Jew who escaped from the provincial Smilovichi, where fellow believers beat him for his paintings, and by some miracle flew into brilliant Paris. Soutine turned out to be an original artist with a great future. Modigliani painted two of his portraits, one of which, where Soutine has an open, perky face of a rogue guy, is very beautiful in painting.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Modigliani's life became even darker. Many of his friends were drafted into the army, loneliness set in. In addition, prices soared; stone and marble became an inaccessible luxury, and Modigliani had to forget about sculpture. Soon he met the writer Beatrice Hastings. The acquaintance turned into a stormy romance that lasted two years. The relationship between the lovers can be judged at least by the fact that once Modigliani admitted that he threw Beatrice out of the window, and another time, blushing with shame, told Jacques Lipchitz that Beatrice had beaten him with a rag.

It was during the war years that Modigliani managed to achieve some success. In 1914 Paul Guillaume began to buy the artist's works. In 1916 this “art dealer” was replaced by a native of Poland, Leopold Zborowski. In December 1917, Zborovsky agreed with the owner art gallery Bertha Weil on the organization of Modigliani's solo exhibition (it was his only lifetime "personal exhibition"). It seemed that the wall of non-recognition was about to collapse. However, the idea of ​​the exhibition turned into a farce. The gallery was just opposite the police station, and when a small crowd gathered near the window of the gallery with a nude of Modigliani displayed to attract the public, one of the policemen decided to see what was happening there. Half an hour later, Madame Veil was ordered to remove the "abomination" from the window, and the exhibition had to be curtailed before its official opening.

A few months before the ill-fated exhibition, Modigliani met a 19-year-old student, Jeanne Hebuterne (ill. 4). The girl fell in love with the artist and remained with him until his death. However, his behavior did not improve from this. With Jeanne Modigliani was terribly rude. The poet André Salmon described one of Modigliani's many public scandals as follows: “He dragged her (Jeanne) by the hand. Grabbing her by the hair, he pulled it with force and behaved like a madman, like a savage.

In March 1918, Zborovsky moved to the south of France, away from the capital, mired in military bustle. To keep himself company, he invited several artists - Modigliani was among them. So he ended up in Cannes, and then in Nice, where in November 1918 Jeanne had a daughter (also Jeanne). At the end of 1919, Modigliani (ill. 5) returned to Paris with both Jeannes, and a few months later fell ill with tuberculous meningitis.

On July 12, 1920, he died. The tragic postscript to Modigliani's life was the suicide of Jeanne Hebuterne. The morning after the funeral, she, being eight months pregnant, threw herself out of the window.

At the end of his biography, it is customary to put a bold point: finally, Modigliani found himself and expressed himself to the end. And he burned out in mid-sentence, his creative flight ended catastrophically, he also turned out to be one of those who “didn’t live out their own in the world, didn’t love their own on earth” and, most importantly, didn’t do it. Even on the basis of what he did undeniably perfectly in this one and only "period", which continues to live for us even today - who can say where, in what new and, perhaps, completely unexpected directions, in what unknown depths Would this passionate, longing for some last, all-exhaustive truth talent rush? Is there only one thing you can be sure of - that he would not have stopped at what he had already achieved.

2. Creativity

In the years 1898-1900, Amedeo Modigliani worked in the workshop of Guglielmo Micheli, and therefore we can say that the initial stage of his work was marked by Italian Art XIX century. Since this century in a country with a glorious artistic past is not rich in outstanding achievements, many tend to underestimate the masters of this time and their creations. Meanwhile, they are an indisputable source of inspiration for a novice artist, and this fact cannot be refuted by the fact that few of Modigliani's early works, completed before moving to Paris, have come down to us. Perhaps, in Livorno, Florence or Venice, unknown works by Modigliani of 1898-1906 will still be found, which will help shed light on the initial stage of the artist's creative biography. In addition, we can draw on some feedback about early work Modigliani. And in general it is difficult to imagine that he passed by contemporary art his native country: it is obvious that the art of Italy of the nineteenth century made no less impression on the young Modigliani than the works of the Renaissance, and Boldini is just as felt in the early Parisian works of Modigliani, like Toulouse-Lautrec.

During his stay in Rome in 1901, Modigliani admired the painting of Domenico Morelli (1826-1901) and his school. Sentimental paintings by Morelli biblical themes, his historical canvases and canvases on plots from the works of Tasso, Shakespeare and Byron are now completely forgotten. A bold step, leading far ahead of Morelli, was made by a group of very young artists "macchiaioli" (from macchia - a colorful spot). This school, young innovators, they were united by the rejection of the bourgeois tastes that prevailed in art, the apologists of which were academic genre painters. In terms of subject matter, the artists of the Macchiaioli group were close to the Impressionists: they also liked to depict peasant houses, rural roads, sun-drenched land and sun glare on the water, but did not differ in courage artistic solutions inherent in the followers of Monet.

Apparently, during the period of his apprenticeship, Modigliani was for some time a supporter of artistic principles"macchiaioli". Micheli, his teacher, was himself a favorite student of one of the founders of this school, Giovanni Fattori (1828-1905) from Livorno. Micheli was pretty famous landscape painter, and popular with local art lovers, he earned his seascapes, filled with a sense of freshness and light.

Modigliani worked as passionately as he lived. Alcohol and hashish never dampened his indefatigable desire to work. Probably, there were periods when, due to the lack of wide recognition, he fell into despair and gave up. Once, answering a friend who reproached him for idleness, he said: “I create at least three pictures a day in my head. What's the point of spoiling the canvas if no one will buy it anyway?" On the other hand, Arthur Pfannstiel, author of Modigliani and His Work, reports that the young artist was constantly sketching, feverishly filling his blue-covered notebooks with drawings, up to a hundred a day.

It should be remembered that during this period Modigliani still dreamed of becoming a sculptor and spent a significant part, if not the lion's share, of his efforts on sculpture. A man with a critical mindset, he periodically destroyed those things that seemed to him unsuccessful. But he also lost many jobs in hasty moves from one place to another, almost always secretly and without paying the owner for the rented premises. Angry homeowners destroyed the "crazy" paintings he left them in lieu of payment; the owners of bistros did not value his work too much, with whom he exchanged his works for drink more often than for food. He mindlessly gave away a lot of works to his numerous random girlfriends who did not take care of them. Modigliani never kept a record of his works.

It is noteworthy that the young painter was so little influenced by Fauvism and Cubism. The Fauvists put color at the basis of everything, and for Modigliani the main thing is the line. At first, he complained that his "damned Italian eyes" could not get used to the special Parisian lighting. His palette was not very diverse, and only once or twice did he resort to a coloristic experiment in the spirit of the neo-impressionists or fauvists. As a rule, he enclosed large surfaces of even color in thin, but clearly traced linear contours. Cubism, with its tendency towards dehumanization, was for Modigliani, who was looking for the possibility of expressing strong emotion, too rational.

If the early canvases of Modigliani, despite their excellent technical skill and individual glimpses of a peculiar charm and lyricism, are not yet genuine outstanding works, then his drawings of 1906-1909 already anticipate the mature master of 1915-1920.

He spent the summer of 1909 with his family in Livorno and painted a number of paintings there, among which was a canvas called The Beggar. This canvas, as well as two versions of The Cellist, were among the six things he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1910. By this time, many critics, poets and fellow artists had already recognized him, however, except for Dr. Paul Alexander, who was devoted to him, no one wanted to buy his works. He moved from place to place, because there was never money for a decent workshop. At one time he lived in the so-called "Hive" - ​​a strange, dilapidated house on Danzig Street, where Chagall, Kisling, Soutine and many other foreign artists also rented tiny workshops.

In 1909-1915 he considered himself a sculptor and worked very little in oils. During this period, Modigliani made many interesting and necessary acquaintances. In 1913, he met Chaim Soutine, an uncouth immigrant from Lithuania, and subsequently, as a close friend, tried to teach him good manners. Soutine was a dozen years younger, and his exuberant painting with characteristic "explosions" of pasty strokes could hardly please a friend from Italy. In 1914, Max Jacob introduced Modigliani to Paul Guillaume, the first marchant who managed to arouse interest in the artist's work among clients. But Modigliani had a much closer relationship with another Marchand, Leopold Zborowski, whom he met in 1916. A significant part of the works created by the artist in the last three or four years appeared thanks to the support of Zborowski and his wife. Zborowski was an unusual phenomenon among the marchants of that time: he had a fanatical affection for his ward, despite all the shortcomings of the artist - primarily recklessness and irascibility - which would alienate a less devoted person.

In December 1917, Modigliani's only real solo exhibition was organized by Zborowski at the Bertha Weil Gallery. Instead of the expected success, a noisy scandal erupted. A crowd gathered in front of the display case, in which the nude painting was displayed. The police insisted that this canvas and four other nudes be removed from the exhibition. None of the paintings were sold.

In May 1919, Modigliani returned to Paris, and Jeanne arrived there a little later. The first signs of success appeared. Newspapers began to write about the artist. Several of his canvases were featured at the French Art Exhibition in London. His work began to be in demand among buyers. Modigliani finally had a reason to perk up - if not for a new deterioration in health. Modigliani managed to simultaneously establish himself as a realist and non-objective. This inspired eclecticist - an aristocrat, a socialist and a sensualist in one - uses the techniques of both the masters of the Ivory Coast (whose statues amaze the imagination without arousing a sense of belonging) and the icon painters of Byzantium and the Early Renaissance (who touch us, but cannot shake us to the core). ). From all this, the quivering, exciting - in a word, unique - Modigliani is formed!

3. Famous works

Amedeo Modigliani art artist

The amazing manner of Modigliani was especially pronounced in his nudes and portraits. It was these works that, first of all, put him on the leading positions in the art of the twentieth century.

Modigliani's creative path turned out to be tragically short. He was given very little time - most of his best works fall on the last five years of his life. This explains the relatively modest size of his legacy, and some narrowness in the choice of topics - according to by and large, Modigliani worked in only two genres (nude and portrait). Nevertheless, even in such an era as generous with talents as the beginning of the last century, he managed not to get lost in the general “artistic” mass and declared himself to be one of the most original and poetic contemporary painters. And the style he created still haunts many artists, provoking them (often unconsciously) to imitate and repeat.

Modigliani's elongated forms have always aroused great interest. Their origins have been variously explained by critics. Some of these explanations are rather anecdotal - for example, relatively speaking, "alcoholic". It was argued that the elongated forms are the result of the artist's alcohol addiction, looking at women through the bottom of a glass or the curved neck of a bottle. Meanwhile, similar forms are also found among the Renaissance masters, before whom Modigliani bowed, and on African masks he loved. African masks did not exhaust his artistic hobbies. He was also attracted by the art of Ancient Egypt, the statues of the islands of Oceania, and much more. However, there was no talk of direct borrowing; if the ancient sculptures had an influence on the style of Modigliani, then only indirectly. Modigliani accepted only that which corresponded to his own searches.

In his "sculptural" five years, the artist painted only about two dozen paintings, while total number his surviving paintings are close to 350. He later abandoned the sculpture. Perhaps sculpting became simply too much for him. Stone carving is heavy physical work, and the stone dust flying at the same time was contraindicated by the artist's lung spoiled by tuberculosis. Be that as it may, created by the author sculptural works- an integral part of Amedeo's work. All existing sculptures by Modigliani were created between 1909 and 1914. These are 23 stone heads and two figures (a standing woman and a caryatid). Modigliani made sketches of caryatids many times, intending to create a whole series of heads and figures for the temple of beauty he had conceived. This plan was not destined to come true. True, he showed seven heads (also a kind of series) at the Autumn Salon in 1912. A friend of the artist, the famous sculptor Jacob Epstein, noted in his autobiography that at night Modigliani lit candles mounted on stone heads and illuminated the studio with them, trying to “imitate the lighting of an ancient pagan temple.

Modigliani was a self-taught sculptor, which is why his early sculptures look rough (and even clumsy). But, working hard, he soon found his own style, both elegant and powerful. Modigliani's stone heads have an attractive, almost magnetic force. It can be assumed how majestic the Temple of Beauty conceived by the artist could be.

The work of Modigliani is most often associated with the viewer precisely with his nudes. Modigliani had always been interested in the nude, but it was only in 1916 that he turned to the subject in earnest. The magnificent nudes painted by the artist in the last three or four years of his life are very different from everything he created earlier. Women's images late Modigliani became more sensual and spontaneous, having lost their former sadness and contemplation. Working in this genre, the artist rarely resorted to the help of his girlfriends or mistresses - the only exceptions are one nude with Beatrice Hastings as a model and several similar things for which Jeanne Hebuterne posed. Usually paid models or casual acquaintances served as models for the artist. Modigliani gave preference to lying nudes (although this is not an exclusive position for him). He always portrayed the female body large, juicy, with arms thrown behind the head or bent legs.

At the time of Modigliani, the nude female nature had not yet become a commonplace in painting. She worried, even shocked. The image of pubic hair was considered especially obscene. But the creation of an erotic atmosphere was not Modigliani's end in itself; this, of course, is present in his canvases, but, in addition, they are elegant in composition and exquisite in color. First of all, they are works of art. Examples include Nude on a White Cushion (1917-1918), Seated Nude (ill. 6) undated, and Young Seated Woman (1918). An excellent example of the genre, combining purity and elegance of line, simplicity of composition, expression and deep eroticism - "Seated Nude" (1916). This is one of the first nudes of Modigliani, relating to his mature period. In his book (1984), dedicated to the work of the artist, Douglas Heasle calls this picture "perhaps the most beautiful of Modigliani's nudes"1. The woman's face is stylized, but you can find similarities with Beatrice Hastings in it. At the time of the creation of the canvas, they were still living together. However, it is unlikely that Beatrice posed for the artist; most likely, Modigliani, as usual, invited a professional model for this. But in the process of work, Beatrice, of course, stood before his eyes. The elongated, sculptural face of the woman depicted is reminiscent of the African masks that Modigliani so admired, while the tilt of the head and lowered eyelashes echo the paintings usually exhibited at the Salon. Nevertheless, this work by Modigliani is completely original and is rightfully considered one of the pearls in the nude series, which subsequently glorified the artist.

“Reclining Nude” (1917-1918), Modigliani’s work is most often associated with the viewer precisely with his nude, and this masterpiece is an excellent example of the genre, combining purity and elegance of line, simplicity of composition, expression and deep eroticism.

Modigliani was an outstanding draftsman, so the main charm of the image is given by the line, gently describing the contours of the woman's body, her neck and the oval of the face. The smooth contours of the figure are emphasized by the elegant background of the picture, elegantly matched to the tone. The pose and facial features of the model are very intimate, but at the same time deliberately stylized, which is why the image loses its individuality and becomes collective. The arms and legs of the heroine of this work, cut off by the edge of the canvas, visually bring her closer to the viewer, further enhancing the erotic sound of the picture.

In addition to nudes, Modigliani's portraits are widely known. He said: “Man is what interests me. The human face is the highest creation of nature. For me, this is an inexhaustible source. Most often, Modigliani was posed by his close friends, thanks to which many of the artist’s canvases look like a curious gallery of representatives of the artistic world of that time, whose images captured the “golden age” of Parisian art. Modigliani left us portraits of the artists Diego Rivera, Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso and Chaim Soutine, the sculptors Henri Lauren and Jacques Lipchitz, the writers Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob. Only one self-portrait of Modigliani (ill. 7), written by him in 1919, a few months before his death, has come down to us.

Nudes and portraits, painted by the artist at the end of his life, mark an important milestone in history modern painting. Although recent portraits Modigliani bear traces of emotional decline (which is not surprising, if you do not forget about how he lived at that time), they nevertheless retain the transparency and majesty inherent in the masters of the Renaissance.

But Modigliani did not bring fame in his lifetime. He was known only to a narrow circle of artists - the same as he, disinterestedly in love with art. And this, as a rule, does not bring money during life. Yes, Modigliani (like many of his friends) still waited for unconditional recognition, but this happened after his death. For his paintings, which he gave away for bread and wine, now they pay breathtaking money; in art galleries, they occupy the most honorable places, and hundreds of books have been written about the artist himself. Ordinary story.

Conclusion

The painting style of Modigliani, with its decorative flatness, sharp brevity of composition, musicality of silhouette-linear rhythms, and saturation of color, was determined in the early 1910s. In his, as a rule, one-figure paintings - portraits and nudes - Modigliani created a special world of images, intimately individual and, at the same time, similar to a general melancholic introspection; their peculiar, subtly nuanced psychologism, enlightened poetry are combined with a constant, sometimes tragic sense of a person's insecurity in the world.

Modigliani managed to simultaneously establish himself as a realist and non-objective. His art meets the requirements of the purists who insisted that the picture is only a plane on which paints are applied in a certain order; but at the same time he put into his canvases a rich human, sexual and social content. He reveals and hides, selects and brings, seduces and soothes. This inspired eclecticist - an aristocrat, a socialist and a sensualist in one - uses the techniques of both the masters of the Ivory Coast (whose statues amaze the imagination without arousing a sense of belonging) and the icon painters of Byzantium and the Early Renaissance (who touch us, but cannot shake us to the core). ). From all this, the quivering, exciting - in a word, unique - Modigliani is formed!

What remains of Modigliani seven decades after his death? First, of course, creative heritage, which is still subject to detailed study, and secondly, a legend that has become the property of millions.

The legend arose from the memories of people who knew the artist during his tragic life in Paris, and even more from books based on some amazing, but not always reliable information from the second or even third hand. The adventures of Modigliani are the subject of several mediocre novels and films.1

Alcohol and drugs may have been simply necessary for the physically weak, unfortunate and lonely foreigner in Paris, who also suffers from insecurity and bitter disappointments, but they by no means created and released his genius. Modigliani was almost always desperately poor, and more even because of his "terrible temper", which repelled possible patrons, than because of the complete indifference to him on the part of collectors. Debunking the “romantic legend of death from starvation, alcohol and, God knows, what metaphysical torments”2, the artist’s daughter Jeanne Modigliani blames everything, first of all, on tuberculosis, which he was ill with throughout his life.

No matter how insufferable and irresponsible the artist may seem at times, he was basically - and all his friends are unanimous in this - a man of aristocratic behavior, a brilliant mind, widely educated, capable of good feelings and compassion. Given the limited duration - thirteen years - of his creative activity and all life circumstances, his achievements are amazing not only in quantitative but also in qualitative terms. In the book Modigliani and His Work (1956), Arthur Pfannstiel lists and describes 372 paintings by the artist created after his arrival in Paris in 1906. In the preface to the album "Amedeo Modigliani. Drawings and Sculpture (1965) Ambrogio Ceroni argues that quantity original paintings Modigliani - 222, which indicates a very strict approach to their assessment. Several early paintings by Modigliani have already been discovered in recent years, and not so long ago a number of very convincing authentic canvases from the Parisian period were put up for sale, not mentioned by either Pfannstiel or Ceroni.3 Unfortunately, the market was flooded with fakes under Modigliani, and some of them with such skill that they can mislead both the specialist and the collector. It is not surprising that the masters of falsification have stepped up their activities so much - the price for Modigliani's first-class work has risen to one hundred thousand dollars. As a result, many "Modigliani" have appeared, who are trying to reduce the original techniques developed by the master to trivial formulas.

We will never know how many works did not reach us - how many of them were destroyed by the artist himself, but how many were lost.

Bibliography

Werner Alfred. Amedeo Modigliani (translated by Fateev). - St. Petersburg: ICAR, 1994. - 126 p., ill.

Vilenkin V.Ya. Amedeo Modigliani. - 2nd ed., corrected. and additional - M.: Art, 1989. - 175 p., L. ill. - (Life in art).

European painting XIII - XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Art, 1999. - 526 p., ill.

Modigliani. - M.: Publishing Center "Classics", 2001. - 64 p., ill. The world of masterpieces. 100 world names in art.

Art Gallery: Modigliani. - No. 26. - M., 2005. - 31 p.

Encyclopedia of World Painting / Comp. T.G. Petrovets, Yu.V. Sadomnikov. - M.: OLMA - PRESS, 2000. - 431 p.: ill.

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Modigliani Amedeo

(b. 1884 - d. 1920)

The famous Italian artist, sculptor and draftsman, whose unique art remained unrecognized during his lifetime. The depth of his tragedy was appreciated by the only woman - Jeanne Hebuterne, who shared loneliness and death with him.

“I think that a person is a world that is sometimes worth any worlds,” wrote the unique artist Amedeo Modigliani to his friend and permanent “magic wand” Leopold Zborovsky. In his amazing canvases, behind the emphasized conventionality and deliberate simplification, under the transparent-clear or deliberately clouded surface of the image, the breathtaking depths of human souls were hidden. Unusual, strange, but such attractive portraits captivate with the passionate persistence of the poetic language, whisper, suggest what is the most important, the most secret in a person. Modigliani was a poet in the world of pictorial representation of people. Their faces and figures, at first glance, completely different from the originals, turned out to be easily recognizable "from the inside." The artist felt and understood their anguish and dream, their hidden pain or contempt, downtroddenness or pride, challenge or humility.

Jean Cocteau was the first to see this in his paintings: “Modigliani does not stretch faces, does not emphasize their asymmetries, does not gouge out one eye for some reason, does not lengthen the neck. All this is formed by itself in his soul. This is how he painted us at the tables in the Rotunda, drawing endlessly, this is how he perceived us, judged, loved or refuted us. His drawing was a silent conversation. It was a dialogue between his line and our lines." But only the closest friends appreciated the artist during his lifetime. And women… For them, he was a “Tuscan prince”, that man who, even in the naked shell of their bodies, saw not only beautiful flesh, but also souls.

For Modigliani, fate prepared a difficult, restless, life full of searches for one's own path. The first to feel it was his mother, Eugenia Garcin-Modigliani. Amedeo was born on July 12, 1884, just at the moment when bailiffs came to his parents' house in Livorno to collect the property of this unfortunate Jewish family for debts. According to Italian laws, the things of the woman in labor were inviolable, and therefore, on the bed of the tormented woman, the relatives piled all the most valuable things that were in the house. The mother saw this as a bad omen for the newborn. Dedo, so affectionately she called her son, was the fourth and most beloved child in the family. He adored his mother all his life for her rare human qualities character and mind. Amedeo owed his education only to her. Evgenia Garsen, brought up in an atmosphere of complete freedom, in an environment where a clear mind and talent were more valued than money, managed to preserve these qualities and instill them in her children in the painful atmosphere of the Modigliani family, where they boasted that they had once been "pope's bankers."

Amedeo did not love his father. The unsuccessful businessman Flaminio Modigliani traded in firewood and coal and owned a modest brokerage office associated with the extraction of silver in Sardinia, but he did not know how to conduct business. The wife did not have to hope that he would provide for the family. And she, in order to feed herself, her sisters, her elderly father and children - Emmanuele, Margarita, Umberto and Dedo - took the salvation of the devastated house into her own hands. splendid knowledge European literature and several foreign languages ​​allowed her to successfully engage in translations and at the same time give lessons to children. Soon she organized a real private school of French and English at home, which was very popular in the city. For some American who decided to take up literary criticism, Evgenia Garsen prepared numerous articles, which allowed him to get a university chair. Amedeo grew up in a creative environment. Subsequently, already living in Paris and shaking everyone with his knowledge of languages, literature and general erudition, he declared with a proud laugh that this was natural for the “son and grandson of bankers” on the paternal side and a descendant of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza on the maternal side (his great-grandmother was nee Spinoza and , may have been related to the family of the philosopher, who had no children).

Evgenia Garsen closely followed the development of her son. When he was two years old, she wrote in her diary that he was "a little spoiled, a little capricious, but handsome as an angel." Dedo was rather a charming imp, quick-tempered and unbalanced, and only next to his mother remained quiet and obedient, afraid to upset her. Only thanks to this, he successfully passed the exams at the Lyceum, despite his reluctance to study. The boy's favorite pastime was reading. The philosophical books of Nietzsche, Bergson, D'Annunzio, Spinoza, Uriel d'Acosta, the poetry of Leopardi, Verlaine, Villon, Rambo, Dante, Mallarme created a desperate romantic and stubborn worker, forever brought confusion into his soul and forced him to seek his one and only path .

About the young “philosopher,” as his family and friends called him, his mother wrote in 1895: “The character of this child has not yet been sufficiently formed for me to express a definite opinion about him. Let's see what else will develop from this cocoon. Maybe an artist? She was a seer. The son grew up weak, often sick. Pleurisy and typhus were complicated by tuberculosis. Perhaps the mother thought that painting would be the best profession for him, not even suspecting what difficult path his talent would take.

In 1898, Amedeo, leaving the Lyceum, entered the workshop of the Livorne follower of the Impressionists, Guglielmo Micheli, and acquired serious technical skills. A year later, the training was interrupted by a severe outbreak of tuberculosis. Treatment in southern Italy dragged on - not without benefit for Amedeo's talent. He visited with his mother in Torre del Greco, Naples, Amalfi, Capri, Rome. Everything he saw made a huge impression on the young man, and in the early spring of 1902, having established himself in his desire to become an artist, he entered the Free School of Drawing from the Nude, and a year later continued his studies, but already in Venice. Amedeo fell in love with these cities, and with them all of Italy and the art of the old Italian masters- so poetic and subtle. He was attracted by painting and sculpture, fascinated by the forms and lines through which it was possible to express the depths of the human personality. He was very serious about the search for expressive language in his work.

In this state of confusion, in 1906, Amedeo arrived in Paris. His mother, who never doubted his giftedness, scraped together a small amount for him for the first time. Modigliani appeared among young artists living in Montmartre as a kind of colony, like a prince from a fairy tale. He was dazzlingly handsome. Large black eyes flashed feverishly in a matt-swarmed face, bordered by slightly curly blue-black curls. His flying gait, harmonious appearance and "hot" voice attracted everyone's attention. He was aristocratically polite, but at the same time simple and sociable. Behind the southern expansiveness, constant anxiety was not immediately noticed. Amedeo easily got along with people. Charming and intelligent, he participated in constant disputes about the trends of modern art, was keenly interested in the work of Picasso, Matisse, Vlaminck, Derain, defended the right to exist of the works of the old masters, but he himself did not join any of the currents. Modigliani searched for and improved his unique style.

The implausible conventionality, understatement and even "inaccuracy" had their own attractive authority. Smooth soft or hard exaggerated lines, “leading the color”, created a sense of depth, “the appearance of the invisible”, outlined the “Modigliani physicality”. The artist knew how to make the colors breathe, pulsate, pour alive from the inside. natural color. His search was not an artistic contrivance. Numerous portraits and "nude" (nudity) received psychological certainty, with all the external similarity, they ceased to be soulless and faceless. They always guessed "and the character, and fate, and the uniqueness of the mental warehouse" of a person. After all, Modigliani, the “great compassionate,” as his friends called him, was characterized by “painful, intense peering into people’s souls.” “Human being is what interests me. The human face is the highest creation of nature. For me, this is an inexhaustible source, ”said the painter, generously wasting himself. Each portrait, each sketch became a part of his soul, his pain.

Modigliani's work was not seen in numerous Salons, or at independent exhibitions, or at personal exhibitions organized for him by friends. He remained misunderstood until the end of his life by the general public and wealthy art dealers. The artist never looked for profitable orders and did not stoop to drawing signs. He was poor materially and rich spiritually. And this discord between internal and external also burned him. Amedeo did not know how to fight for himself and defend his art - he lived in it. The same outcast and restless talents became his best friends. He loved to draw them, as well as simple laundresses, seamstresses, circus girls, prostitutes, flower girls. Modigliani saw their pure souls, unstained by everyday life and the dirt of professions, in a turmoil of feelings and actions. He loved and understood these outcasts and exalted them with his art. His portraits are Mozart and Dostoyevsky in paints.

And life quickly flew downhill. Modigliani did not seem to notice this. But others have seen it. In just a few months in Paris, he turned from an elegant dandy in a fashionable suit into a tramp in wrinkled clothes, but with the same red scarf or scarf. And this is not surprising, because the first person Amedeo became close to was Maurice Utrillo, most talented artist, in which even the stones and plaster of buildings came to life on canvases. He attracted Modigliani with his childish vulnerability, insecurity and pulled him into an alcoholic pool. But next to Maurice there was always a mother, the famous circus acrobat Suzanne Valadon in the past, who posed for Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, and now famous artist. She managed to pull her son from the bottom. Amedeo had no one to help, and he would not accept anyone's help.

Half-impoverished Modigliani lived from hand to mouth, huddled in cold slums, and gave his drawings for a glass of cheap wine. But there was not a day that he did not work, only there were no buyers for the paintings. Often models posed for him without pay, compassionate women fed their “Tuscan Christos” and warmed his bed.

Amedeo liked women. They were bribed by his suave manner. He knew how to give a modest bouquet of violets with such nobility and gratitude, as if they were precious stones.

But more often than not, Modigliani ate badly and slept where necessary. The funds sent by the mother did not last long. He did not value money and, without hesitation, shared it with those in need. It became especially difficult to make ends meet when Amedeo, having met the sculptor C. Brancusi, again decided to take up sculpting (1909-1913). He always dreamed of giving a liveliness and a pulsating sensuality of "breathing" volumes to a linear drawing. Fascinated by the Negro primitive and Egyptian plasticity, which were close to the outlines of his pictorial models, Modigliani gave his sculptures "cloudy tenderness" in the "drowsy fading of golden-pink tones" of sandstone and wood (the famous "Heads"). But the stone dust aggravated the condition of his sore throat and lungs. An aunt, Laura Garcin, visiting her beloved nephew at the Hive, where he lived in a beggarly room in the hostel of artists, was horrified. He was on the verge of physical and nervous exhaustion.

For almost a year, Modigliani recuperated at his parents' house in Livorno. But for real work, he needed a "big city" - Paris, where he returned. In the spring of 1910, Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev arrived there on their honeymoon trip. The meeting between Amedeo and Anna took place in one of the taverns, where young bohemians gathered - artists and poets, including many Russians. He seemed to her a very picturesque man next to an elegant, talented, but unloved husband. In her memoirs, Akhmatova wrote: “And everything divine in Amedea only sparkled through some kind of darkness. He had the head of Antinous and eyes with golden sparks - he was not at all like anyone else in the world. His voice somehow remained forever in my memory. I knew him as a beggar, and it was not clear how he lived.

Two artists, brushes and words, felt an incredible magical power of attraction to each other. They loved the same poets. Amedeo listened with rapture to Russian poetry, admiring the sound of an incomprehensible language. The regal beauty of the young poetess delighted his refined taste as an artist. According to Akhmatova, she “saw him extremely rarely, only a few times,” because her husband was nearby. And all winter he wrote her letters full of passion and love. For her, Amedeo was distant and at the same time close, he was invisibly present in every line of poetry.

In the fluffy muff, the hands went cold.

I was scared, I was kind of confused.

Oh how to get you back, fast weeks

His love, airy and minute!

Upon returning to Russia, in the quietness of the countryside, under the pressure of a “deeply experienced feeling,” Akhmatova produced lines that became an invaluable treasure of poetry. They corresponded, and in the midst of poetic success and recognition, Anna again leaves for Paris (1911). This time alone.

In the memoirs of the poetess, there is not even a hint of any intimacy of meetings. Quiet walks in the Luxembourg Gardens or in the Latin Quarter. Quiet rain drumming on an old black umbrella. Two people, huddled closely together, sit on a free bench and read poetry. Honorable memoirs sound faceless. But art cannot be deceived.

I'm having fun drunk with you -

There is no point in your stories...

Autumn early hung

The flags are yellow on the elms.

Both of us are in a deceitful country

Wandered and bitterly repent

But why a strange smile

And frozen smile?

We wanted stinging flour

Instead of serene happiness ...

I won't leave my friend

And careless and tender.

Modigliani painted Anna. Of the 16 drawings given to her, she carefully kept only one. Decent. The fate of the rest remained unknown for a long time. Akhmatova said that they burned down in the Tsarskoye Selo house. But ... "... On the gray canvas appeared strange and indistinct" royal head with a bang, a long neck and a naked beautiful body. This is exactly how Anna appeared in the painting “Nude with a Cat” (Fig. No. 47), exhibited at the London exhibition in 1964. And in the fall of 1993, an exhibition of Modigliani’s works from the collection of his friend and admirer of talent P. Alexander took place in Venice for the first time. 12 drawings are attributed by Augusta Dokukina-Bobel as images of Akhmatova. These beautiful nudes are evidence true feelings Anna and Amedeo. About the decent memories of the poetess, I. Brodsky spoke most frankly: "Romeo and Juliet performed by royalty."

Akhmatova returned to Russia. She lived waiting for letters, but there were none. Amedeo's life was filled with other women. And he was drowning not only in alcohol, but also in hashish intoxication, to which he became addicted back in Venice. In letters to his friend Zborovsky, Modigliani either promised to get rid of addiction, or admitted: “Alcohol isolates us from the outside world, but with its help we penetrate into our inner world and at the same time we bring in the external. And no woman could help him. They loved him just the way he was: tender and affectionate when he was sober; violent and cruel in a drunken stupor. But for a long time next to him, no one could stand.

For almost two years (1915-1916), which was the highest rise in the artist's work, Modigliani lived with the English poetess and journalist Beatrice Hastings (now, name - Emily-Alice Hay). They were an odd couple. A tall, statuesque, red-haired beauty in the style of Gainsborough, always elegantly but bizarrely dressed, and Amedeo, in picturesque cast-offs, a little younger than her and divinely handsome. Their life was far from a family idyll. Two violent temperaments crossed so that the walls trembled, household utensils flew and glass had to be inserted. Beatrice was a self-sufficient woman and possessed many talents: she acted as a circus horsewoman, wrote poetry, sang beautifully (her voice register was stretched from soprano to bass), was a gifted pianist, in literary circles she was valued as an intelligent and "mercilessly witty" critic. She, by own confession, "madly in love with her dissolute friend." Friends admitted that only Beatrice could bring the raging Amedeo to life, but she herself loved to drink.

Modigliani saw two women in her. He needed one - and in the pictures she is helpless, offended, very feminine, without shocking and bravado. He hated the other and drew it like a caricature - angular, unkind, puffed up, prickly. But she appreciated the talent of the artist: “I have stone head a work by Modigliani that I would not part with for a hundred pounds. And I dug this head out of a garbage dump, and they called me a fool for saving it. This head, with a calm smile, contemplates wisdom and madness, deep mercy and light sensuality, numbness and voluptuousness, illusions and disappointments, locking it all in itself as a subject of eternal reflection. This stone is read as clearly as Ecclesiastes, only its language is comforting, because there is no gloomy hopelessness in this threatening, bright smile of wise balance.

After the “escape” from Modigliani, Beatrice gradually degraded, and in 1916 a young, quiet Canadian student, Simone Tirou, entered his life. She earned money for her studies by posing for many artists, but she became attached to Amedeo with her heart and soul. She loved him selflessly, but for some reason he was especially cruel to her. The artist ignored the girl's timid requests to be softer and hate her less and did not recognize his son. (According to Jeanne Modigliani in her book on the father, the child born to Simone and adopted after her death in 1921 by a French family bears a striking resemblance to Amedeo and is apparently her half-brother.)

Modigliani ruthlessly broke up with Simone and was more worried that he could not work with stone. Increasingly, he was seen ugly drunk. He scandalized, loudly sang songs and recited, indulged in wild dances. Misunderstanding, non-recognition, restlessness, a beggarly existence of talent splashed out in the frenzy of movements that Gerard Philippe so truthfully conveyed in the film "Montparnasse, 19", playing the role of a damned genius. The French called him "Modi" (maudit - cursed). Probably even the closest friends, among whom there were many recognized and rejected talents (L. Zborovsky, D. Rivera, X. Soutine, M. Jacob, M. Kisling, J. Cocteau, P. Guillaume, O. Zadlin, M. Vlaminck, M. Talov, P. Picasso, J. Lipchitz, B. Sandar, and many others), did not realize the depth of disharmony that reigned in the soul of the artist.

In his mature work (1917-1920) Modigliani achieved perfect transparency, clarity and richness of painting. The continuous, incessant portrait flow is simply amazing. As if careless, in a few strokes, the sketch revealed the soul of the model. J. Cocteau compared Modigliani "with those contemptuous and arrogant gypsies who themselves sit down at the table and guess by the hand." He never left the house without his usual blue folder and pencils. No one could hide from his penetrating gaze. He painted without preparation and without corrections. Friends who wanted to help him commissioned their own portraits (he did not accept other commissions, but gave works as gifts or paid bills with them), but did not succeed too much. Modigliani painted a portrait in 3-4 hours, in one session, which he estimated at 10 francs. The famous artist L. Bakst spoke about preparatory drawing, which Amedeo created in a few minutes: “Look at the accuracy with which this is done. Every feature of the face is as if engraved with a needle, and not a single correction! Each drawing was a small masterpiece, and Modigliani, like a rich man, did not skimp, handing them out by the hundreds.

The contrast between the harmony and integrity of the artist's creative vision and spiritual hopelessness was deeply understood and appreciated by Jeanne Hebuterne. Amedeo met her in July 1917. And how could one pass by this diligent novice artist, hardworking, calm and idolizing his talent! He, of course, wasted his youthful beauty: his hair was reduced, his teeth blackened in his mouth, and even those were missing. Only the radiant look and spirituality of the alabaster-white face betrayed the former conqueror of women's hearts. For him, 19-year-old Jeanne was the perfect model. A small brown-haired woman with heavy braids of the color of dark gold, elongated proportions of her face, neck, body, exactly descended from his paintings, and translucent pale skin. “... She seemed unexpected next to him. She was like a bird, easily frightened. Feminine, with a shy smile. She spoke very quietly. Never a sip of wine. She looked at everyone as if in surprise, ”recalled I. Ehrenburg. Her mind was characterized as sober and skeptical, and her humor was called bitter. She herself was an individual with excellent artistic inclinations and read Amedeo's soul like a book. For him, Jeanne left her prosperous family, who believed that a semi-poor, unrecognized, drinking painter, living like a tumbleweed, and also half a Jew, was not a match for her. But the quiet girl possessed such strength of character that, having fallen in love, she remained faithful and devoted to the end, despising all the difficulties that befell her.

Amedeo and Jeanne's house was more like a beggar's shack. Attempts to establish a life were doomed to failure in advance. Modigliani did not recognize lockers, shelves, napkins. All timid attempts to save a loved one from the main trouble - wine and hashish - ended in failure. Jeanne often had to look for the rowdy Amedeo in the taverns and, with motherly care, lead him into the house so that he would not wander the streets at night. Looking at his wild look, white lips, emaciated body, which came in a terrible cough, they forgave him a lot and brought another glass of wine. Jeanne often had to endure drunken beatings, but she never complained, because she knew that behind her violent temper there was a heart bleeding with pain, an unrecognized genius and a wonderful friend. He had such a gift for understanding people that not a single person quarreled with him in his entire life.

Jeanne failed to force Amedeo to take his health seriously. In March 1918, L. Zborowski, a voluntary marchant (“picture dealer”), who devoted his life to Modigliani, and parents reconciled with their daughter sent them to Nice for treatment. Jeanne was expecting a child, and Amedeo went rather for her sake. Here, on November 29, a girl was born, who was named like her mother. “I am very happy,” Modigliani wrote to relatives in Livorno, but he did not change his attitude to life. In a letter to Zborovsky, he was frank: “Oh, these women! .. The best gift that can be given to them is a child. Just don't rush into it. They must not be allowed to turn art upside down, they must serve it. And it's our job to keep an eye on it."

But Zhanna was not only a devoted wife, but also a talented artist, as evidenced by her, unfortunately, few landscapes and portraits by Modigliani and Mark Talov. But first of all, she was Amedeo's favorite model. He created many of her portraits and pencil drawings. All the works of the artist during this period are distinguished by special enlightenment and are the most harmonious of all that he created. What can not be said about his life. When the worried Zborowskis told Zhanna that Amedeo needed to be saved, she said slowly and with conviction: “You just don’t understand - Modi must definitely die. He is a genius and an angel. When he dies, everyone will immediately understand it.”

Nothing could change the inevitable, and Jeanne understood this like no one else. Neither the sudden increase in demand for his paintings (especially outside of France), nor the baby daughter he loved, nor the expectation of the birth of a second child. Death stood at the door. Jeanne and Amedeo knew this. Zborovsky accidentally saw two unfinished paintings of Zhanna: on one she plunged a knife into her chest, on the other she fell from the window ...

In mid-January, Modigliani, habitually drunk, wandered around Paris for young artists, and then fell asleep on a snow-covered bench. He returned home at dawn and took to his bed. Jeanne, without calling anyone for help, silently sat next to him. Surprised by the silence, the friends, de Sarte and Kisling, called the doctors. The diagnosis was disappointing: nephritis and tuberculous meningitis. On January 22, Amedeo was transferred to the Charite, a hospital for the poor and homeless, where on January 24, 1920 at 20:00. 50 min. he passed away. AT last hours he raved about Italy and called for Jeanne, a woman whom he “did not have time” to marry, although he gave a receipt in the presence of witnesses, who bore him a daughter and was nine months pregnant.

Jeanne silently, without a single tear, stood over his body and returned to her parents. On January 25 at 4 o'clock in the morning, she threw herself from the sixth floor, went to her Amedeo and took their unborn child with her.

Friends buried Modigliani “like a prince” (as requested by his brother Emmanuele) in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. Hundreds of people came to see him off on his last journey. A day later, Jeanne's parents buried her in a remote Parisian cemetery. A year later, at the insistence of the Modigliani family, in which their daughter Jeanne was brought up, the unmarried spouses rested under one slab. Next to Amedeo's name is carved: "Death overtook him on the threshold of glory", and under the name Hebuterne - "A faithful companion of Amedeo Modigliani, who did not want to endure separation from him." They were faithful to each other in life, in sorrow and in death.

World fame - this "unheating sun of the dead" - illuminated the name of Modigliani immediately after death, as Jeanne predicted (her portrait at Sotheby's auction was sold for $ 15 million). He became "great", "unique", "brilliant". But the artist has always been like that. His quivering, primordial human talent cannot be measured by money and posthumous worship. A genius must be understood during his lifetime.