The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 18. The Portrait of Joseph Levi (1910)

How are you?

Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 18th work to introduce for this week is “The Portrait of Joseph Levi (1910)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 53.7 x 48.7 cm, possessed by Levi's family.

Joseph Levi was a painter and painting-restorer who lived in Montmartre in the early 20th century.

Levi, a friend of Modigliani, often lent money to Modigliani, and he paid back the borrowed money with his drawings and paintings

This work, using various colors, is one of the portraits that have feeling of the Classical Art.

It is also an evidence that Modigliani experimented with the Fauvism, which he first encountered the works of Henri Matisse and Andre Derain.

Levi was a recognized artist with his confidence based on his experience, and this work demonstrates his confidence and vigorous character very well.

His appearance is somewhat authoritative, majestic, and it is estimated that Levi is a stubborn person from his tightly closed mouth.

Three years later, Modigliani drew a portrait of Levi's son, Gaston, and it was perhaps a token of friendship or the gratitude for lending money.

The featuring point of this work is that the shape of the model's face and body is quite different from his other works, and as a result the model in this work looks more realistic than others.

In addition, unlike Modigliani's general style for the selection of the background colors in order to concentrate on the model, he also concerned with the background than other works using a mixture of various colors with a striped style.

This is a unique feature of this work.

This is perhaps the result of experimenting with the forms of Fauvism after encountering the intense and primary colors of the Fauvism as commented earlier.

In addition, the way of expressing the model with thicker and stronger brush strokes than other works also seems to be influenced by the Fauvism, and the result expresses the stubborn character of Levi as well.

One more thing to comment is that the contours of the eyes, nose, mouth and ears of the model are slightly blurred compared to Modigliani’s previous works.

It seems to be another evidence of Fauvism, pursuing a simplification of the object, which is one of the features of the Fauvism.

Thank you.