The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 78. Portrait of a Woman in a Black Tie (1917)

 

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

The 78th work to introduce for this week is “Portrait of a Woman in a Black Tie” in 1917.

This work is an expressionist style portrait and an oil painting on a canvas with the size of 65.4 x 50.5 cm, and held in private collection.

Painted in 1917, this work gives the impression that Modigliani went straight to the point intending to convey to viewers, by completely eliminating extraneous elements. However, it is surprising that the characteristics and personality of the model are conveyed to the viewers as it is, despite the almost complete elimination of such elements. 

This style of Modigliani can be seen as a good representation of his character for pursuing the purity of art, and his friend Max Jacob said, "To Modigliani, everything in art had to lead to purity. Everything in this painting is just the expression of his absolute demand for crystalline purity.”

Max Jacob, Amedeo Modigliani

It is said that the prototype of this portrait was his lover, a journalist Beatrice Hastings. Hastings was a woman Modigliani met for about two years before meeting Jeanne Hébuterne, and his muse who gave Modigliani a lot of artistic inspiration. Some documents said that she was a legendary woman who tamed Modigliani, an arrogant artist, as a docile person.

Portrait of Beatrice Hastings, Amedeo
Modigliani

The woman in this work is depicted in almost every unique style of Modigliani: a mask-like face, almond-shaped eyes without pupils, triangular nose, small mouth, arched eyebrows, slanted head and elongated face.

However, one of his features, an elongated neck, does not appear in this work, and the woman's neck, covered with the collar of her white shirt, is barely visible. Although the woman in this work is depicted in almost every unique style of Modigliani, unlike the women in his other works, she looks very mysterious and strange, and at the same time exudes a unique and elegant charm that only women have.

She also should be a happy woman when referring to her attire, but her actual appearance indicates that she is not happy but looks gloomy, and the background color further enhances her gloomy look. 

It can be said that receiving this feeling from the woman without pupils is a manifestation of Modigliani's genius talent for expressing his models’ characteristics and personality in his paintings.

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The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 61. Portrait of Max Jacob (1916)

How are you?

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

The 61st work to introduce for this week is “Portrait of Max Jacob” in 1916.

This work is an expressionist style portrait and an oil painting on a canvas with the size of 92.7 x 60.3 cm, and possessed by Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

Cincinnati Art Museum

Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer and critic who was born on July 12, 1876 and died on March 5, 1944.

Max Jacob

Jacob was born from a family of a poor Jewish tailor in Quimper, Brittany. However, despite his poverty, he was very interested in costumes, and his preferences for the costumes can be guessed from his appearances in this work as well as another painting wearing a hat that Modigliani painted him.

Max Jacob, Modigliani (1916)

He was one of the first friends whom Pablo Picasso met in Paris. The two met in the summer of 1901, and Jacob helped Picasso learn French. Jacob also became close friends with Modigliani, and Modigliani painted his portrait in 1916.

Amedeo Modigliani, Max Jacob, Andre Salmon and Ortiz de Zarate taken by Jean Cocteau in Montparnasse, Paris (1916)

In May 1936, Jacob, who moved outside of Paris and settled in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, was arrested by the Gestapo on February 24, 1944 and imprisoned at Orléans prison. Jacob, who was imprisoned at Orléans prison, was then transferred to Drancy internment camp and then supposed to be transferred to Auschwitz. However, Max Jacob, who was suffering from bronchial pneumonia, died on March 5 in the infirmary of La Cité de la Muette, a former housing block which served as the internment camp known as Drancy.

Max Jacob, shown in this painting, is characterized by his complex appearance, such as a few white hair, eyes with no pupils through which the wall can be seen, curved eyebrows, a hooked nose, almost invisible lips, angled chin and cheekbones. 

It seems that Modigliani has well captured and expressed his diverse and complex characters in this painting, such as gentleness, kindness, cruelty and lust that his friends described him.

In general, Modigliani drew eyes without pupils when it was difficult to express the personality or character of his model, so it seems that Jacob's eyes without pupils was due to the difficulty for expressing his diverse and complex personality.

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The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 40. Portrait of Paul Guillaume (Novo Pilota) (1915)

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

The 40th work to introduce for this week is “Portrait of Paul Guillaume (Novo Pilota) (1915)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on cardboard with the size of 105 x 75 cm. Currently, this work is owned by the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, France.

This work is a portrait of Paul Guillaume, who was his friend and art dealer, painted by Modigliani in 1915,

Modigliani painted this work at 13 Rue Norvins, where Beatrice Hastings lived. Modigliani lived there with her at the time and before her, Emil Zola lived.

Paul Guillaume, who was introduced to Modigliani by Max Jacob in 1914, became the only buyer of Modigliani's work from 1915 to 1916 and his first real dealer.

Paul Guillaume appeared Parisian art scene in 1914, when he opened his first gallery on the rue de Mirosmesnil. Guillaume, who determined to escape from the background of his poor family he was born at all cost, studied art at the Montmartre cafés and began his art career by collecting Picasso's works and African statues, and later became an expert especially on African statues.

One day, the owner of the garage, where Guillaume worked to make his living, allowed him to display one of his African statues in the garage window. At this time, the sculpture displayed in the window was noticed by Apollinaire, who was a writer and an art critic, and thus Guillaume thereafter was able to begin the life of art dealing and research as full-time job. Thanks to Apollinaire, Max Jacob and Waldemar George, Guillaume was able to expand his business, the art dealing, and even maintained it during World War I.

For Modigliani, in an open letter to Francis Carco, Guillaume wrote "When Max Jacob introduced Modigliani to me in 1914, he was a sculptor who drew painting. Rightly or wrongly I felt responsibility to urge Modigliani to paint rather than sculpture."

Unfortunately, Guillaume died at the young age of 43, and a lot of suspicions especially related to his wife, Domenica, were raised for his questionable death, and his wife was once accused of the murder of Paul Guillaume. After Guillaume's death, Domenica, who married French architect Jean Walter, decided to donate her ex-husband Guillaume's collection to the French government, and since she died, Musée de l'Orangerie possessed many pieces of his collection

This work is characterized by containing many texts and symbols.

First of all, “A Star of David” symbol and the text “STELLA MARIS” are displayed on the upper right of the work, and his signature “MODIGLIANI”, the “swastika” symbol in the shape of a broken cross and the year “1915” when Modigliani painted this work are displayed on the lower right.

upper right

lower right

In addition, the text “PAUL GUILLAUME” is written at the top left and the text “NOVO PILOTA” is written at the bottom left with two lines ending “arrow”.

top left

bottom left

Let's summarize the meaning of these texts and symbols that Modigliani used in this work.

First, the Star of David is commonly used as a symbol of modern Jewish identity and Judaism.

Second, the Latin “Stella Maris,” which translates into “star of the sea,” is one of the titles referring to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.

Third, “swastika” is a broken cross-shaped “卐” or “卍”, a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon in the Eurasian cultures, and used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Swastika was also used as a symbol of the German Nazis, but when Modigliani used this symbol in this painting, the Nazis did not exist. Therefore, it is simply an ancient Sanskrit’s symbol.

Fourth, “NOVO PILOTA” means “new pilot”.

Perhaps these texts and symbols seem to be intended to express a sincere appreciation of Modigliani to Paul Guillaume, who became working with him as his dealer, as well as implicitly to express his Jewish origin.

Then, this work could be included as one of the few that Modigliani expressed his Jewish identity in his works.

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