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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96. Classical Music: 11. Felix Mendelssohn, ACJ Music Academy

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This week's lecture is “Felix Mendelssohn”, the 11th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “96. Classical Music: 11. Felix Mendelssohn” introduced on July 15th, 2017.

Felix Mendelssohn, born on February 3, 1809 and died on November 4, 1847, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.

Portrait of Mendelssohn, Eduard Magnus
(1846)

A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and a son of the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, he was born into a prominent Jewish family in Hamburg. A year after his birth, in the same house, Ferdinand David, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, was born.

Moses Mendelssohn

Ferdinand David

Mendelssohn began taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of six, and received a musical education from Marie Bigot in Paris at the age of seven.

Marie Bigot

Raised without religion until the age of seven, when baptised as a Reformed Christian, Felix was recognized as a musical prodigy from an early age, but his parents refused to use his talent commercially. 

His older sister Fanny, who had a similar musical education, was also a talented composer and pianist, and some of her early works were published under the name of her younger brother, Felix.

Fanny Mendelssohn, Wilhelm Hensel
(1829)

Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, and revived interest in Bach's music, especially when he performed Johann Sebastian Bach's “St Matthew Passion” in 1829. 

Johann Sebastian Bach, Elias Gottlob
Haussmann

He performed throughout Europe as a composer, conductor and soloist, where he was well-received and his ten visits to Britain, where many of his major works were premiered, were an important part of his career. 

Mendelssohn, who had an essentially conservative musical taste, was distinguished from more adventurous musical contemporaries, such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatory, which he founded, served as a focal point for this anti-radical musical perspective.

The University of Music and Theatre Felix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Leipzig

Mendelssohn, who was in poor health in his later years, deteriorated further due to nervousness and overwork. Also, his last concert tour of England made him more exhausted and ill, and the death of his older sister, Fanny, on 14 May 1847 made him even more distressed. 

Mendelssohn plays to Goethe, 1830, Moritz
Oppenheim (1864)

As a result, on November 4, less than six months after his sister Fanny died, Mendelssohn died of strokes in Leipzig at the age of 38, and his grandfather, parents and Fanny all died of similar strokes. Felix's funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche in Leipzig, and his body was buried at the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Mendelssohn's gravestone, 
Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof

Mendelssohn left behind various genres of music, including symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His most famous works include “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, “Italian Symphony”, “Scottish Symphony”, oratorio “St. Paul”, oratorio “Elijah”, “The Hebrides Overture”, “Violin Concerto” and “String Octet.” The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was also composed by Mendelssohn and his "Songs Without Words" are his most famous solo piano compositions.

The composer's study in Mendelssohn
House, a museum in Leipzig

Long and relatively denigrated due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mendelssohn's music has since been re-evaluated, and he is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

The Mendelssohn monument near Leipzig's
St. Thomas Church

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Interesting Art Stories: 58. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt, ACJ Art Academy

 

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Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 58th story is “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” by Gustav Klimt.

“Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I”, also called “The Lady in Gold” or “The Woman in Gold”, is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, the model’s husband and a Jewish banker and sugar manufacturer, and is one of Klimt's representative works of his golden phase. 

Gustav Klimt

It was the first of two portraits of Adele by Klimt, and the second was completed in 1912, and both portraits were part of several works by Klimt owned by the Bloch-Bauer family.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, Gustav
Klimt (1912)

Although Klimt's works belonged to her husband, Ferdinand, and not her, Adele's will, who died in 1925, asked that this portrait should be left to the Galerie Belvedere. When Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Ferdinand fled Vienna and went to Switzerland, leaving behind most of his fortune, including his vast art collection. 

Österreichische Galerie Belvedere

The painting was stolen by the Nazis along with the rest of his assets, after Ferdinand was charged with tax evasion in 1941. The lawyer representing Germany gave the portrait to the Galerie Belvedere, claiming that he followed the wishes Adele had made in her will. Ferdinand, who died in 1945, stated in his will that his estate should go to his nephew and two nieces.

Adele Bauer was from a wealthy Jewish family living in Vienna and her father was then a director of the Wiener Bankverein and the general director of the Oriental Railway. The relationship between Adele and Klimt began in the late 1890s, and opinions are divided on whether they had an affair. 

Adele Bloch-Bauer

Adele's parents arranged a marriage with Ferdinand Bloch, a banker and sugar manufacturer, and Adele's older sister had previously married Ferdinand's older brother. Adele was 18 and Ferdinand was 35 at the time of marriage. The couple, who had no children, changed their surnames to Bloch-Bauer. Adele, who was very socially active, met regularly at her home with writers, politicians and intellectuals.

The couple, who was art lovers, sponsored several artists, and the model of Klimt’s painting "Judith and the Head of Holofernes" in 1901 was Adele.

Judith and the Head of Holofernes (also
known as Judith I), Gustav Klimt (1901)

In mid-1903, Ferdinand commissioned Klimt to paint a portrait of his wife. Klimt drew more than a hundred preparatory sketches for this portrait between 1903 and 1904 and put more preparation and effort for this portrait than any of his other works.

Klimt exhibited this portrait at the Mannheim International Art Show in 1907 along with “The Portrait of Fritza Riedler (1906)", to which many critics had negative reactions.

Portrait of Fritza Riedler, Gustav Klimt
(1906)

One of Ferdinand's nieces, Maria Altmann, hired the lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg to make a claim against the gallery to bring back five works by Klimt. After a seven-year legal claim, including a hearing in the Supreme Court of the United States, an arbitration committee in Vienna has decided to return this painting and other works to Altmann as they have been stolen from her family. 

Maria Altmann

She sold the painting the same year to the businessman and art collector Ronald Lauder for $135 million, who exhibited the work in the Neue Galerie in New York City, which he co-founded.

Neue Galerie New York

The story of the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and other paintings taken from the Bloch-Bauers has been described in three documentary films, “Stealing Klimt (2007)”, “The Rape of Europa (2007)” and “Adele's Wish (2008).” 

Stealing Klimt (2007)

The Rape of Europa (2007)

Adele's Wish (2008)

In 2015, Maria Altmann's story was adapted for "Woman in Gold," the film starring Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann and Ryan Reynolds as Randol Schoenberg.

Woman in Gold (2015)

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