How are you?
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 41st work to introduce for this
week is “Portrait of Pierre Reverdy (1915)”.
This work is a portrait of an
expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 40.7 x 33.7
cm, and currently
in private collection.
Pierre Reverdy (September 13,
1889~June 17, 1960) was a French poet whose works were first inspired by Surrealism,
Dadaism and Cubism, and then subsequently influenced them.
The winemaker's son, Reverdy, was
born in Occitanie in the region of Narbonne and grew up near the Montagne Noire.
In October 1910, he arrived in
Paris, where he devoted to write poems and met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max
Jacob, Louis Aragon and André Breton, around the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre,
all of whom admired his poetry. Reverdy published a small volume of
poetry in 1915, and André Breton welcomed him as "the greatest poet of the
time" in the first Surrealist Manifesto. In 1917, Reverdy, together with Max
Jacob, Vicente Huidobro and Guillaume Apollinaire, founded the journal "Nord-Sud",
which contained many Dadaist and Surrealist contributions.
However, Reverdy, who was a somber
man by nature, became
distant from the world of bohemian in Paris over time. Eventually, in 1926, Reverdy burned
many of his manuscripts in front of his friends as a ritualistic act, symbolizing
the abandonment of the material world. Then, he converted to Catholicism, and
moved with his wife Henriette to a small house located in proximity to a
Benedictine abbey at Solesmes. Excluding occasional visits to
Paris, Solesmes, where he lived a "quasi-monastic life”, became his home
for the next thirty years.
Reverdy’s longest and most profound
relationship was the fashion designer “Coco Chanel”.
The two maintained their romantic
and passionate relationship from 1921 to 1926, and continued their deep bond
and great friendship for 40 years, even after their initial fire of the passion
was cooled. Chanel was a source of inspiration
for Reverdy's poetry, and she cultivated his confidence, supported his creative
ability, and helped resolve his financial instability by secretly purchasing
his manuscript through his publishers.
During the wartime, Reverdy did not
try to know about Chanel's cooperation with the Nazis. Reverdy rationalized that Chanel
was only deceived and manipulated by the German Nazis in the belief that women
are weaker and more vulnerable than men, and he also absolved her actions as a Catholic.
Looking at today’s work, Pierre
Reverdy, a model, was a person with a short neck, but it was characterized by an
elongated neck compared to the actual one, and the Adam’s apple and chin were
also emphasized.
In addition, the line dividing
background is tilted to the left, but the slope seems to be compensated by the
dark brushstrokes on the left side. Each part of the model’s face is also biased
to one side, but all of them seem to be compensated each other and cancel each
bias.
For example, the black eye on the
left offsets the dark eyebrows on the right, and the nose skewed to the right
counters the mouth skewed to the left. And the more abundant hair on the left
is offset by the larger ear on the right, and the neckline is aligned with the
slope of the background.
Also, in this work, one of the characteristics of the Modigliani
style, empty eyes without pupils, are represented but in this case, one eye is
black and the other eye is empty without a pupil. In general, Modigliani drew
empty eyes without pupils based on two reasons, one of which is when Modigliani
couldn’t recognize the model's mind or character exactly, and the other reason is
an allusion to ask the model to reflect his or her inside. Also, if he draws the
model’s eyes black, it was often the case that he feels that the model looks at
him with compassion, but there are surely many exceptions.
Because the relationship with
Chanel was indeed so deep and strong, the model, Reverdy, in this work, wrote the
following poem for Chanel, who had been in love for the past 40 years, knowing
that his death was imminent and died in Solesmes in 1960.
"Dear
Coco, here it is
The
best of my hand
And
the best of me
I
offer it thus to you
With
my heart
With
my hand
Before
heading toward
The
dark road’s end
If
condemned
If
pardoned
Know
you are loved"
Thank you.
