How are you?
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani.
The 94th work to introduce for this
week is “The Little Peasant” in 1918.
This work is an expressionist style
portrait and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 100 x 65 cm and possessed
by the Tate Gallery in London, England.
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| The original Tate Gallery, now renamed Tate Britain |
It was painted in the room where
Modigliani painted Jeanne Hébuterne during his stay with Jeanne in Nice, the
southern France.
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| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne, Amedeo Modigliani (1918) |
The identity of the model in this
painting is not exactly known, and Modigliani would have been able to express
the model in a more free form through the anonymity of the model.
The simplified form of the model
shown in this painting once again reminds us of the influence that Modigliani
received from Paul Cézanne.
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| Woman in a Green Hat (Madame Cezanne), Paul Cézanne (1894-1895) |
This painting is also one of
Modigliani's first paintings to be purchased by the Hugh Blaker Collection in
London, England in 1919 through Léopold Zborowski, the friend and art dealer of
Modigliani.
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| Hugh Blaker |
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| Portrait of Léopold Zborowski, Amedeo Modigliani (1918) |
The young country peasant in this
painting gives a glimpse of Modigliani's same respect for the modest people,
which Cézanne showed to the modest people of Provence. Despite their bourgeois
background, Modigliani and Cézanne loved common people.
Modigliani said to Soutine:
"Like the beautiful statues of antiquity, Cézanne's figures don't watch
him. But my figures are watching me with an interest even if I draw their
pupils. But like Cézanne's figures, they don't want to express anything other
than they silently accept their lives."
The young country peasant,
expressed without ornament or any embellishment, would have posed for his
model, not even imagining that his portrait would become the collection of one
of the most famous museums in the world in the future.
Another painting that Modigliani
painted the same figure as this painting is shown below.
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| The young apprentice, Amedeo Modigliani (1918) |
Thank you.
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