Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
was a sculptor, (portrait) painter and draftsman. He was born in 1884 in Livorno, Italy, and died at the age of 35 in Paris.
He grew up in a family that was part of the Jewish bourgeoisie. At the age of eleven he contracted with pleurisy and at the age of sixteen he contracted with typhoid. He recovered together with his mother in Naples in 1900/ 1901 and also visited Rome and Capri. After he was completely recovered, he quitted school and his father gave him the permission to dedicate his life to art.
The life of Alexander Amedeo Clemente Modigliani
He first went to Florence, where he attended the Art Academy. Later he went to Venice, where he successfully completed his studies in 1905. In 1906 he moved to Paris, where he continued his art studies at the Académie Colarossi. He presented at the Paris Autumn Salon, which was strongly influenced by the Fauves.
He became a part of the Société des Artistes Indépendants whom offered the opportunity to him to exhibit his art works in 1908. But none of his six pictures he exhibited received any attention.
But the day he got in contact with the wealthy bourgeoisie, because of the help of the doctor Paul Alexandre, who was fascinated by the paintings of Modigliani, he got a first commission for a picture; in 1909 he painted his picture "The Amazon" as his first contract work. During the years 1909 and 1910 the artist got inspired by his next-door studio neighbour Constantin Brancusi to do a little sculpting.
Influences on his works
Hereinafter Modigliani executed first busts and first caryatides. His next-door studio neighbour Brancusi showed him how to make first easy sculptures. This kind of easy sculptures inspired the artist Modigliani to create some heads of stone.
His sculpting work was of course influenced by his work as a painter; the languages of shapes of his pictures can also be found on his sculptures. At the end he was creating some sculptures characterized by a lightly detailed deformation structure. But as a painter he returned to his beloved subject of painting. Besides some very scandalous nude paintings and nude drawings the artist also painted some portrays of famous artists like Pablo Picasso in 1915 and Jacques Lipchitz.
Even the painter and sculptor got supported by other artists as well a by art collectors, he never made a big breakthrough. In 1917 he had his first and only own exhibition at the Berthe Weill in the French capitol.
This was the same year he met his future wife Jeanne Hébuterne, a young model and his sweetheart. She got pregnant in 1919 but never gave birth to the child. Because Modigliani died on January 24, 1920 in Paris she committed suicide.
In November 2010, a painting of a nude, part of a series of nudes he created around 1917, sold for more than $68.9 m at an auction in New York a record for Modigliani`s work. He had an own distinctive style. Hig quality bronze replica like Woman`s Head you will find in our shop. Every single sculpture is signed with the artist`s name.