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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 12th work to introduce this week is “Portrait of Jean Alexandre (1909)”.
This work is, a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 65 x 81 cm, painted by Modigliani in 1909.
Jean, the model of the work, was a young student at the time and he commissioned Modigliani for this work.
It is also the work which Modigliani painted after he painted the portraits of Jean’s father and Paul Alexandre, who was his brother as well as the friend and patron of Modigliani.
Modigliani painted this work in his studio at 14, Cite Falguiere at the time.
In this work, Jean is wearing a maroon tie, a white shirt and a black suit, leaning his head on his right hand.
The reason why Modigliani used black color for the suit of Jean is that the black color was the symbol of expensive suits for the wealthy people at the time.
Modigliani also used brown color as the background of the painting to further enhance the richness of Jean.
Modigliani, who was exactly understanding the influence of colors on painting, used a combination of warm and dark colors to highlight the professionalism of Jean, and wanted the viewers to recognize that Jean is from a wealthy family and well educated.
In addition, Modigliani did not place any objects besides the model in this work in order not to fade the meaning of this work.
Jean's face in this work is also an example that Modigliani was influenced by African sculptures.
The right arm of the model rests on a pillar on the wall, but Modigliani did not clearly represent the pillar in the painting.
It seems to be an effort to preserve the meaning of the work with simple backgrounds, and instead Modigliani treated Jean’s body as curves to represent that he is leaning against the pillar.
The model’s placement and the background’s expression of Modigliani is a part showing his excellent artistic techniques.
Jean was not an artists’ patron, but in the spring of 1909, when his brother, Paul Alexandre, left Paris, he replaced Paul's role and encouraged Modigliani and helped his daily life.
A few years later, in June 1913, Jean died of tuberculosis.
However, Modigliani stayed in Italy and did not know this at the time.
He returned to Paris a few days after the funeral of Jean and could not attend his funeral.
Thank you.
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