MO03                              h.11,0 cm

Jeanne Hébuterne with a big straw hat. Two years before his death Amedeo painted a portrait of his 21-year-old Jeanne. He had lived together with this fair-skinned, auburn-haired young artist since 1916. Jeanne's portrait with a big straw hat is considered the most beautiful of the sixteen portraits Amedeo painted of her. With his typical use of colours, inspired by Byzantine art, he paints a modest, friendly Jeanne in geometric forms. The portrait is painted in the year that Jeanne becomes pregnant with their daughter Giovanna. Two years later she becomes pregnant again but ends her own life the day after Amedeo dies.

 MO04                               h. 10,5 cm

Lunia Czechowska (1919) The elongated neck catches the eye in this portrait of Lunia Czechowska, a family friend of the Zborowskis. In Paris Modigliani becomes friends with the poet Zborowski who later establishes himself as an art dealer. He sees to it that Modigliani is more or less able to provide for himself and to support Jeanne, his wife and the young mother of his child, who has a troubled relationship with Amedeo because of his illness and alcoholism. Modigliani is very fond of the friendly and sensitive Lunia Czechowska and he regularly paints her. This portrait has all the characteristics of his work, it has a sculpture-like compactness and it is vertically geometric and meditatively modest. The person portrayed is reduced to her essential being, stripped of all unnecessary decoration.

MO05                                                                    h. 15 cm

 In 1912, the art of sculpture seemed to have taken a heavy toll. Modigliani was completely exhausted by the heavy and dusty work. He was forced to devote his attentions once again to painting and was inspired by Chaïm Soutine, his new neighbour. He was particularly impressed by the technique and definitive lines of this Lithuanian Impressionist. Modigliani chose the caryatid as the subject of his art on a number of occasions. Originally it was a pilaster in the form of a sculptured female figure, illustrating how sculpture continued to play a role in his paintings.

MO 09        14,5 CM

MO 10            11 CM