How are you?
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 69th work to introduce for this
week is “Portrait of Anna Zborowska” in 1917.
This work is an expressionist style
portrait and an oil painting on a canvas with the size of 55 x 33 cm, and is in
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, Italy.
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| Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna |
Today's model, Anna (Hanka)
Zborowska, was born on April 16, 1885 from a Polish aristocratic family.
Her parents died when she was a
child, and her maternal uncle took care of her and her sister, Zofia.
In 1910, Anna went to Paris to meet
her sister Zofia, where she lived with her sister and taught Polish. Very
popular in Paris, she always had a lot of friends around her. In the winter of
1915, she met the poet and art dealer Léopold Zborowski at the Café de la Rotonde,
who is her future husband.
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| Portrait of Léopold Zborowski, Amedeo Modigliani |
In 1918, in order to escape the
war, she went to Nice and Cagnes-sur-Mer with her husband Zborowski and
Modigliani and Jeanne, Foujita and Soutine, where they lived for several
months.
During this period, Modigliani
painted several portraits of Anna.
She frequently provided meals to
the poor Modigliani, nursed him when he was ill, and took care of his young
daughter, Jeanne.
After the deaths of Modigliani and
Jeanne, Anna tried to adopt their child, Jeanne Modigliani, but Modigliani's
family in Livorno refused and then his elder sister raised the child.
Anna continued to sell paintings
after Zborowski's death in 1932.
She died of old age on September 2,
1978 in Evry, a suburb of Paris, and was buried in the Père-Lachaise. Anna
wrote a memoir under the title ‘Modigliani and Zborowski’, published in 2015.
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Modigliani et Zborowski, Anna Zborowska |
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| Tomb of Zborowski, Père Lachaise Cemetery |
The work I introduce today is one
of the earliest works of Anna Zborowska, the wife of Leopold Zborowski. In the
upper right corner of the canvas, the model's name is written largely in black
capital letters against the brown background.
The purity and classicism that are
the characteristics of Modigliani’s portraits are also well represented in this
work, and due to these features, Modigliani's works transcend times and impress
viewers.
In addition, this work, like his
other works, has no special decorations and is painted in a very simple
background, so there is nothing that distracts viewers. The perfectly balanced,
very strict model's composition gives a more or less rigorous feel such as a
sculpture, which is also reminiscent of the “head” that Modigliani previously
sculpted.
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| Head, Amedeo Modigliani (1911-12) |
The large and high white collar adorned with a cabochon broach, which is difficult to find in Modigliani's other works, is interesting, and the yellow-striped curtain on the walls is a great match with the white collar. Her distant gaze, her face color in enamel tones, and her cool-looking apperance, combined with the large white collar, she seems to be a young female sovereign.
Also, her black hair is in balance with
her black dress and a nice contrast to her large white collar. And in this
work, the style of model’s ear covered by her hair is also one of the features
that are difficult to see in Modigliani's other works.
Modigliani painted many works with
Anna as a model, some of which are introduced below.
Thank you.
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