Culture & Arts; Lecturer, Writer, Contents creator, Broadcaster
;President, Art Collage JANG/J Books & Media/Modigliani Institute Korea
;Author, “The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories” series
The
Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery
in Milan, Italy. Housing some of the most important collections of Italian
paintings from the 13th to the 20th centuries, it is an outgrowth of the
cultural program of the Brera Academy, which shares the site in the Palazzo
Brera.
The
convent on the site passed to the Jesuits in 1572 and was then radically
rebuilt by Francesco Maria Richini. When the Jesuits were disbanded in 1773,
the palazzo remained the seat of the astronomical Observatory and the Braidense
National Library, founded by the Jesuits. The buildings were extended to the
design by Giuseppe Piermarini, who was appointed professor of the Academy when
it was formally founded in 1776, with Giuseppe Parini as dean. Piermarini
taught at the Academy for 20 years, and under Parini's successors, Carlo
Bianconi and Giuseppe Bossi, the Academy acquired the first paintings of its
Pinacoteca.
In
1882, the Paintings Gallery was separated from the Academy and Giuseppe Bertini
was appointed as its first director. In
1903, the Pinacoteca opened 19 new rooms to display over a hundred newly
acquired works, such as frescoes by Donato Bramante.
In
1939, during World War II, Pinacoteca's works were secured by Fernanda
Wittgens, while the building was severely damaged in the bombings in 1943. In
February 1946, The Pinacoteca began its slow resurrection from the ruins,
thanks to the funding from some historic Milanese families, including the
Bernocchi family, and to the work of Piero Portaluppi, Gualtiero Galmanini and
Fernanda Wittgens.
The
works of Modigliani currently in the possession of The Pinacoteca di Brera are
as follows.
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 48th work to introduce for this
week is “Portrait of Moise Kisling” in 1915.
This work is a portrait of an
expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 37 x 28 cm,
and currently possessed by Palazzo Brera in Milan, Italy.
Moïse Kisling was a Polish-born French
painter who was born on January 22, 1891 and died on April 29, 1953. Born in Kraków, Poland, Kisling
studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, where his teachers strongly encouraged
him to go to Paris, France, where was considered the center of the world in art
at the time.
Moïse Kisling (c.1916)
In 1910, Kisling left Poland and
moved to Montmartre in Paris, and then to Montparnasse a few years later. Like many others, he was introduced
by Andre Salmon and Max Jacob to the painters from around the world, especially
Picasso, Modigliani and Pascin. In 1913, Kisling took a studio in
Montparnasse, and became close friends with many contemporary artists,
including Modigliani, who painted his portraits.
When World War I broke out, Kisling
enlisted voluntarily in French Army and was seriously wounded in the battle in
1915 and consequently discharged. Then, he received French citizenship from the
French government. Kisling again volunteered for army
during World War II in 1940. However, when the French Army was defeated by the
Germans, Kisling, who was afraid of his own safety in the occupied France
because he was a Jew, moved to the United States. He had exhibitions in New
York City and Washington in the United States, settled in California, and lived
there until 1946.
La Sieste à Saint-Tropez (Kisling with Renée), Moïse Kisling (1916)
After the war, Kisling, who
returned to France, died on April 29, 1953, in Sanary-sur-Mer, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte
d'Azur in France.
By the age of 19, Kisling was
already keeping his family with income from his painting. Kisling, one of
Modigliani's best friends, and his wife, Renée, often became models of
Modigliani and continued to help him, especially from 1916. He shared his
studio on rue Joseph-Bara with Modigliani, paid for his meals, and provided him
with painting materials. Modigliani painted the portrait of Jean Cocteau and
the double portrait of Lipchitz and his wife in the studio.
Portrait of Jean Cocteau, Amedeo Modigliani (1916)
Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz, Amedeo Modigliani (1916)
Shortly after Modigliani's death at
the Charity Hospital in Paris, Kisling made a death mask for Modigliani, and Lipchitzcast 12 of them in bronze for Modigliani's closest friends. Kisling summed up his philosophy as
"We work, we eat, we drink, we work, we make very good food, and we get
married. That's all.”
Death Mask of Amedeo Modigliani
In 1915, Modigliani produced a
series of small portraits reflecting the warm friendship with models who had
good relationships with him.
Looking at the portrait of Kisling
introduced today, his appearance looks like a schoolboy. Also, unlike Modigliani's
style, simply treating the background and other parts of the model except the
face to focus the viewers' attention on the model's face, this work seems to
emphasize the outside of the model's face due to the white collar and red tie. The model's calm and pensive expression,
and large almond-shaped eyes give the viewers an intense impression.
The features of this work are that,
unlike other works of Modigliani, this work has the model's square face which almost
entirely filled the canvas and he did not paint the model with the elongated
face that usually appears in his portraits. Modigliani also simplified almost
all of the lines in the work to create a caricatural feel, but the simplicity
of the lines gives a more emphasis on the model's gaze.
Modigliani seems to show off his
firm friendship with Kisling by drawing this work in a direct and
uncompromising way. Also, from Modigliani's painting
style, drawing eyes with no pupils or blurring eyes when the model's character,
personality, or sincerity are uncertain, he drew the model's eyes and pupils
accurately and clearly in this work. It seems to emphasize the belief and
confidence about Kisling and the faithful and firm friendship of the two.
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.
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