Amedeo Modigliani in Worldwide Museums: 1. The Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum

 

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After completing the introduction of Amedeo Modigliani's works, which was lasted over two years for 100 works, I am going to start a new program visiting worldwide art galleries and museums possessing Modigliani's works from this week.

The first place I would like to introduce is The Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum in Livorno, Italy.

The Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum is a museum in Livorno, Italy. Located in Villa Mimbelli, the museum was inaugurated in 1994 in the presence of then-President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.

The museum has many paintings by Giovanni Fattori and other Macchiaioli.

Self-portrait, Giovanni Fattori (1854)

The museum's origin dates back to 1877, when the municipal administration established a picture gallery that collected paintings by artists such as Giovanni Fattori, Enrico Pollastrini and Cesare Bartolena.

Subsequently, the museum has acquired works by Raffaello Gambogi, Silvestro Lega, Guglielmo Micheli, Adolfo Tommasi, Enrico Banti and others.

Macchiaioli at the Caffè Michelangiolo (c. 1856)

The museum's collection was enriched by the addition of archaeological finds and a numismatic collection donated by Enrico Chiellini between the late of the nineteenth century and the early of the twentieth century. The museum also purchased 250 drawings and 150 etchings of the artist in 1908, when Fattori died, and the museum was named after Giovanni Fattori at the beginning of 1930s.

In addition to the works of the above-mentioned artists, the museum houses works such as various plaster sketches by Temistocle Guerrazzi and Bertel Thorvaldsen; a bas-relief by François Duquesnoy; Flemish school paintings of the 17th century; several paintings of the Madonna and child dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries; three bronze masks by Pietro Tacca; a collection of official garments of the gonfalonieri and priors of the city; memories of General Enrico Cialdini, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Guerrazzi; portraits of prominent Livorno residents and archaeological finds from Livorno area.

During the War, the museum's collection was moved out of the city, and when the war was over, a part of the collection was placed on the second floor of the Villa Fabbricotti, while the rest was placed in the various municipal offices and warehouses. At the same time, the museum's collection was enriched by acquisition of works by artists such as Plinio Nomellini, Guglielmo Micheli, Serafino De Tivoli, Oscar Ghiglia, Ulvi Liegi and Amedeo Modigliani.

In 1994, the museum, made up of only a part of the collection, was moved to Villa Mimbelli.

Modigliani's work, now in the Fattori Museum's collection, is "The Tuscan Road", painted in 1899.

The Tuscan Road, Amedeo Modigliani (1899)

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The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 95. Landscape, Southern France (1919)

 

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani.

The 95th work to introduce for this week is “Landscape, Southern France” in 1919.

This work is an expressionist style landscape and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 61 x 46 cm and possessed by Private Collection.

One of the distinctive features of this painting is that it presents Modigliani’s two signatures at the bottom of the painting.

Modigliani, who painted a lot of portraits, did not seem to be very attracted to landscapes, and as a result, the number of landscapes he painted is very small. 

Modigliani went to Normandy, northwest France, in 1911, where he worked for a while, and it was exceptional for Modigliani, who hated leaving Paris. Modigliani worked hard in Yvetot and Fecamp in Normandy, small towns where the life was monotonous at the time, but it seems that they were not the places for ideal landscapes to Modigliani. 

In contrast, however, in the south of France, Modigliani portrays his childhood memories in the form of a serene landscape. 

In 1919, Modigliani left Jeanne and his baby in Nice and went to Cagnes-sur-Mer where he shared a studio with Chaïm Soutine and painted this landscape.

Portrait of Chaim Soutine, Amedeo
Modigliani (1917)

The painting clearly shows the homage to Cézanne, based on the chosen subject and the way it was expressed.

It is also noteworthy that he painted this painting in the vertical form of the portraits that Modigliani had mainly painted, rather than taking the horizontal form normally used in the landscapes.

Sketch drawing

The density and expression of colors in the painting are reminiscent of Modigliani's hometown of Livorno, Tuscany. Modigliani loved his hometown of Italy very much and missed his hometown until his death, and his final words were "Cara Italia" on his deathbed. 

Modigliani house-Casa Natale Amedeo Modigliani, Livorno,
Italy

Cagnes-sur-Mer and Nice in southern France, where he stayed, located at the same latitude as Modigliani's hometown, Livorno, Italy, share the light and water of the Mediterranean Sea, and these southern regions of France seem to have been ideal places that Modigliani felt the nostalgia of his hometown.

Besides this painting, Modigliani also painted the following landscapes.

Cypress Trees and House, Amedeo
Modigliani (1919)

Landscape, Amedeo Modigliani (1919)

Tree and house, Amedeo Modigliani (1919)

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The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 87. Little Girl in Black Apron (1918)

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani.

The 87th work to introduce for this week is “Little Girl in Black Apron” in 1918.

This work is an expressionist style portrait and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 92.5 x 60.5 cm and housed in the Kunstmuseum Basel in Basel, Switzerland.

Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Modigliani's 1918 paintings appear a series of children, which is no coincidence. The reason for this is that during Modigliani's stay in southern France, there were neither portrait commissions nor the models such as Zborowski had paid in Paris. As a result, Modigliani was free to choose the subject for his paintings, whether as adults or children. 

Portrait of Leopold Zborowski, Amedeo
Modigliani (1917)

Examples of paintings for adults at the time include “Seated man with a cane” and “A beautiful grocer”. Modigliani, who spent his childhood amid families with many children in his hometown of Livorno, may have recalled his childhood, painting innocent children. 

Seated Man with a Cane, Amedeo Modigliani
(1918)

A Beautiful Grocer, Amedeo Modigliani
(1918)

In this painting, the pose of the little girl with big eyes looks a little stiff and awkward, but in another painting of the same little girl, “Two little girls,” she looks more comfortable. 

Two Little Girls, Amedeo Modigliani (1918)

The little girl's black outfit stands out with some embroidery at the bust, and her black apron and the chest of drawers serve to add horizontal lines to the paintings. Also, the black book on the drawers suggests that the little girl is a wise and studious child.

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The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 19. The Beggar Woman (1909)

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 19th work to introduce for this week is “The Beggar Woman (1909)”.

This work is, a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas, with the size of 46x38 cm, in private collection.

The “Beggar Woman” was painted by Modigliani in his hometown of Livorno in the summer of 1909.

This work, the companion of the work, “The Beggar of Livorno,” was one of the paintings that Modigliani returned to his hometown for a while and painted, after moving to Paris in 1906.

This work can be considered as one of the best portraits of Modigliani during this period, which fully satisfied both the expression of the model he pursued and the utilization of the exhibition as economic means for earning money.

The unfocused eyes of the model looking down, the drooping head, and the closed mouth although she seems to say anything, seem to represent this woman's misery and suffering for life.

Modigliani often painted the miserable and poor.

They were surely the ones that Modigliani favored, but one of the reasons was that he was not able to pay for professional models.

It is also a good example of Modigliani's style of selecting background colors so that the viewers don’t pay much attention to the background to increase their focus on the model.

This work, one of the masterpieces of Modigliani, was painted and dedicated to his friend Jean Alexandre to make him happy, who was waiting for his portrait to be completed.

This work was hung in the studio at Delta Street, which was established by Paul Alexandre for artists, and exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1910.

By the 2000s, this work had been displayed at several exhibitions such as the Musee du Luxembourg in Paris, France in 2002, the Palazzo Reale in Milano, Italy in 2003, and the Jewish Museum in New York, USA in 2018.

In this work, the words “a Jean Alexandre” with the signature “Modigliani” appear in the upper left side.

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ARTIST OF THE WEEK: 1. AMEDEO MODIGLIANI

Name: Amedeo Modigliani
Born: 12 July 1884, Livorno, Italy
Died: 24 January 1920, Paris, France
Country: Italy
Art Movement: Expressionism
Genre: Nudes, Portraits
Field: Painting, Sculpture
Active Years: 1898-1920
Influenced by: Paul Cezanne, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Friends/Colleagues: Constantin Brancusi, Diego Rivera, Chaim Soutine, Moise Kisling, Jacques Lipchitz, Max Jacob, Pablo Picasso, Jacob Epstein, Juan Gris, Gino Severini, Maurice Utrillo, Tsuguharu Foujita
Family: Jeanne Hébuterne

Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor with a Jewish descent, who worked most of his life in France.  His painting style is characterized by elongated faces, necks and figures. He was not recognized at the time of his life but became famous after his death. 

Modigliani spent his time for studying Ancient and Renaissance arts during his youth in Italy. In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he met many artists including Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brancusi.

In 1912, Modigliani exhibited his sculptures with Cubists in the Salon d'Automne. From 1909 to 1914, he devoted himself to sculpture. His main subjects were portraits and full body of figures in both paintings and sculptures.

He died at age 35 from tuberculosis meningitis in Paris.

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Currently, “J art”, an internet mall of “Art Collage JANG” is selling art prints of worldwide famous artists (Move to the sites by one click).

In relation with this sale, I will introduce one by one every week, whose art prints are on the sale list, by following categories.

1. Artist’s Bio: Introduce brief bio of selected artist
2. Famous Works: Move to the corresponding art print in J art
3. All Works List: Move to all works of selected artist in J art
4. Related Artists: Move to the works of the artists in J art, who are related to the selected artist
5. All Artists List: Move to the list of all artists selling art prints in J art 

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The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 15. Sorrowful Nude (1908)

How are you?

Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 15th work to introduce for this week is “Sorrowful Nude (1908)”.

This work is, a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 81 x 54 cm, painted by Modigliani in 1908.

In 1903, when Modigliani studied art in Venice, he shared a studio with his friend Oscar Ghiglia, who studied art together in his hometown of Livorno.

In 1903, Oscar exhibited a rather traditional portrait of a woman at the Venice Biennale.

There were many works of French Impressionists at the exhibition, but there were also a number of surreal and dreamy works that could be classified as Symbolism.

Modigliani, who loved the poems of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, who were Symbolist poets, was strongly impressed by these Symbolists’ works.

Unlike the Impressionism, which was confined to France, the Symbolism was a Pan-European movement that took place in many European countries at the end of the 19th century, and the Symbolists pursued anti-realism rather than the visible reality.

Since currently there remained very few paintings that Modigliani painted when he was an art student, it is difficult to ascertain whether he was directly affected by Symbolism.

However, in some works during his first years after moving to Paris, it is certain that Modigliani used Symbolic themes, and one of which is the "Sorrowful Nude”, which I introduce today.

The loneliness and body’s lines of the woman in this work are very similar to “Mother grieving over her Dead Child” by George Minne, who was a Belgian Art Nouveau artist and sculptor, or “Madonna” by Edvard Munch, who was a Norwegian Expressionist/Symbolist painter.

Pain and ecstasy are felt at the same time from the woman with her head back, eyes closed, and mouth opened, suggesting that pain and ecstasy have something in common.

Besides, in the face of the woman who looks like wearing a mask, Modigliani seems to induce the imagination of the viewer, by hiding all her emotions completely behind the mask-like face.

Symbolist painters regarded eyes as a "mirror of the soul”, and they thought that they can read the people's mind through their eyes.

It seems that the reason why Modigliani didn’t draw the model’s eyes in many paintings is that he cannot read the model’s mind through the eyes, and it is thought that Modigliani was influenced by Symbolism.

After two years in Venice, Modigliani went to Paris, France, where he ended his life.

The interesting things in this painting are that a man's face is drawn on the bottom right of the model, and a detailed inspection of this painting showed that the canvas was reused.

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