How are you?
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 35th work to introduce for this
week is “Fat Child (1915)”.
This work is a portrait of an
expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 45.5 x 37.5
cm.
It is currently owned by the Palazzo
Brera in Milan, Italy.
In this work, the signature “Modigliani”
is written in bottom left and the title
“L’Enfant/gras” is written in top left and the text “LOUISE” is next to the ear. Sometimes, Modigliani wrote the title
on his work to identify the model or convey the message.
Another example is Modigliani's
friend, Utrillo, who liked to use the word "vin" as a symbol of the
old houses he painted. Utrillo was also the son of Suzanne
Valadon, who was a painter as well as a model of Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. Picasso and Braque also used
certain words in their cubist works as official elements of their works.
Although Modigliani abandoned the
sculpture in 1914, it seems to be the regrets about the sculpture that there are
many traces of sculptural feeling in his works for the rest of his life.
The almost perfect oval face of the
model in this work is reminiscent of the "Portrait of Mademoiselle Pogany"
created by Constantin Brâncuși in 1912, who was a teacher of Modigliani as well as
influential to him.
Portrait of Mademoiselle Pogany, Constantin Brancusi (1912)
This is a work that shows almost
all the typical styles of Modigliani, such as almond-shaped empty eyes without
pupils and elongated neck.
In addition, the ear is only drawn and
the head is larger on the right side, and the neck and face are slightly tilted
to the right, therefore the model is biased to the right. With the intention of offsetting
this model's bias, Modigliani drew her nose and mouth biased to the left, positioning
the eye on the left a little higher, and with his signature, he put much more
text than usual works to the left to balance the work.
Also, in the background, he used
additional curve with straight lines in the background compared to his usual style
of dividing the background geometrically using straight lines, with the
intention of emphasizing the shape of the unusually rounded oval face.
Therefore, we can get a glimpse of
Modigliani's intricateness of drawing the whole composition in advance, when
drawing a work.
This work also has holes in the 4
corners, and 2 of them were covered by restoration.
As commented in the portraits of
Hastings, the place where Modigliani and Hastings first met was “Chez Rosalie” restaurant, run by Rosalie
Tobia, who provided food to the poor Modigliani for free, and Modigliani drew paintings
in return.
However, Rosalie, who didn't know
art well, did not recognize the value of Modigliani’s paintings. Therefore, many works have been
damaged due to her neglected management, such as nailing them on the toilet.
The holes in the corners of this
work also might be such nail holes from the time of drawing.
Then, this work also might be one
of Modigliani's paintings for Rosalie in return for a free meal.
Thank you.
