How are you?
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani.
The 81st work to introduce for this
week is “Portrait of George Ortiz” in 1917.
This work is an expressionist style
portrait and an oil painting on cardboard with the size of 43.2 x 27.9 cm, and
in private collection.
It has a signature "Modigliani"
in the bottom left and "GEORGE/1917" in the top right.
This work is one of Modigliani's
works with a feeling of pointillism, and a painting that stands out with rough
brushworks rather than unique Modigliani styles. Looking at the model's face
and clothes, since a lot of green colors can be seen between the rough
brushworks, it looks like an unfinished work that hasn't completely finished
after roughly brushing on the green background. Also, due to this treatment,
the appearance of the model can even feel bizarre.
Since the title of this work,
George Ortiz, cannot be found among acquaintances near Modigliani, it has been
a lot of controversy over the identity of the model, and therefore there is no
choice but to speculate the identity of the model from the relevant data.
First, this work was owned by Tsuguharu Foujita, a Japanese-French painter and printmaker who was a friend of Modigliani, before private collection.
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| Portrait of Foujita, Ismael Nery |
It was one of the works that Foujita
tried to sell using the work titled as Blanchard and a photo of the artist when
he traveled to America in 1933, so the model of the work can be speculated as
María Blanchard.
 |
| María Blanchard |
 |
| Still Life with Red Lamp, María Blanchard |
María Blanchard was an artist who
was very close to Diego Rivera's first wife and artist Angelina Beloff and
Blanchard was close enough to live in the home of the Rivera family, where
Modigliani regularly visited, when Rivera was in Mexico.
 |
| Portrait of Angelina Beloff, Diego Rivera |
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| Portrait of Diego Rivera, Amedeo Modigliani |
In addition, in the paper of Alberto G. d'Atri, who was an art critic based in Paris, France and whose subject was Modigliani, as "LE PEINTRE ORTIZ DE ZARATE". Considering the characters including “Ortiz de Zarate” near Modigliani, there are his friend Manuel Ortiz de Zárate and his brother Julio Ortiz de Zárate.
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| Manuel Ortíz de Zárate |
 |
| Julio Ortíz de Zárate |
However, since the two, who were
Chilean painters of Italian origin, were far from the models that Modigliani
expressed as an androgynous model in his paintings, it is difficult to
speculate the model as one of Zárate brothers in this work, which seems to be
look as if female.
Thank you.
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