How are you?
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani.
The 98th work to introduce for this
week is “Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne” in 1918.
This work is an expressionist style
portrait and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 46 x 29 cm and possessed
by Private Collection.
In 1917, Modigliani met Jeanne Hébuterne, and the two were taking model drawing courses at the Académie Colarossi. At the time, Jeanne was 19 and Modigliani was 33.
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| Academie Colarossi life drawing class (1908) |
Although she was a talented art
student, she gave up everything to devote herself to Modigliani, and she stayed
with him until she ended her life by suicide in 1920. The day after
Modigliani's death, she committed suicide by jumping out of a window with her
second child, who was eight months pregnant.
Most of the women Modigliani met
before meeting Jeanne were strong, active and provocative, whereas Jeanne was
devoted and passive.
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| Jeanne Hebuterne |
This painting is a natural-looking
portrait of Jeanne using muted colors. A distinctive feature of this painting
is that it is drawn only with curves without using any straight lines
throughout the painting. The soft curves in the background emphasize the
softness of Jeanne's features, hair and clothes.
Modigliani painted Jeanne's pupils
in brown, which makes her look much more expressive and lively compared to his
other portraits having empty eyes without pupils. Also, despite the elongated
drawing of her neck, face and nose, her hair, eyes, and mouth are drawn
realistically, and these expressions seem to somewhat alleviate the elongation
of her neck, face and nose. In this painting, Jeanne's expression feels very
soft and she looks at the viewer with a figure full of naturalness and
elegance, and the viewer is captured by her gaze.
Below are other portraits of Jeanne
by Modigliani that are similar in size and feel to this portrait.
Thank you.
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