The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 23. Beatrice Hastings (1914)

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

The 23rd work to introduce for this week is “Beatrice Hastings (1914)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 55 x 46 cm.

In this work, Modigliani left the signature "modigliani" in top left, and it is currently possessed by the "High Museum of Art" in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

“Beatrice Hastings” was the pen name of “Emily Alice Haigh”, who was a British writer, poet, and literary critic.

She was born on January 27, 1879 in Hackney, London, England, and died on October 30, 1943, in Worthing, West Sussex, England.

Much of her work has been published under various pseudonyms in the British weekly magazine “The New Age”, and until the outbreak of World War I, she lived with the editor, “A. R. Orage”.

Bisexual, she was a friend and lover of a novelist “Katherine Mansfield”, who published her work in “The New Age” magazine, and also a lover of “Wyndham Lewis”.

Beatrice Hastings, the columnist of “The New Age”, arrived in Paris in April 1914 as a correspondent for Paris and lived in Montparnasse, close to the studios of sculptors “Brancusi” and “Lipchitz”, until she moved to Montmartre the following autumn.

In Paris, she became a figure in bohemian circles due to her friendship with “Max Jacob” and a subject of controversy with her unusual attire and behavior.

According to her memoirs, Beatrice met Modigliani at “Chez Rosalie”, a restaurant kept by the Italian “Rosalie Tobia”.

The two met and had a rough and tumultuous affair like a storm for two years.

She shared her apartment in Montparnasse with Modigliani and modeled for him.

Modigliani, who dreamed of becoming a sculptor, gave up sculpture and dedicated to painting as he met Beatrice, and he left many important works, including 14 paintings and many drawings of her.

After two years of affair, Beatrice broke up with Modigliani, and returned to London.

A natural prodigy, she thought she was excluded from the literary world at the end of her life, and suffered from depression because she was despaired by the people who didn't recognize her talents.

In 1943, suffering from cancer, Beatrice committed suicide with gas.

This work is one of the earliest works of Beatrice by Modigliani and it looks very simple compared to Modigliani’s later works of her.

It is also one of the works that gives a unique feeling by using the technique of “pointillism” that is rare in Modigliani's paintings.

In addition, the colors show a more pronounced “contrast” due to the effect of light shining on Beatrice.

It seems as if the contrast of the colors suggests very different personalities of Modigliani and Beatrice.

Such distinct contrast of the colors also seems to foresee their rough and hard affair in the future due to the very different personality of the two.

Like other works of Modigliani, he treated the background simply and the background color similar to that of the model's hat and attire, so that the viewers’ eyes are focused on the model's face.

Thank you.

Korean Blog