Jeanne Modigliani

JEANNE MODIGLIANI (Nice, 1918 - Paris, 1984).
Untitled.
Acrylic on board.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 60 x 75 cm.

Daughter of the acclaimed painter Amedeo Modigliani and the also artist Jeanne Hébuterne, Jeanne Modigliani did not know her parents: Amadeo died on January 24, 1920 when Jeanne was only fourteen months old and her mother, muse of the painter, committed suicide after a few hours. The child was adopted by her paternal aunt and grew up in Livorno, graduating in art history at the University of Florence. Of Jewish origin and granddaughter of a socialist, in 1939 she fled to Paris because of fascist persecution and, after the Nazi occupation, she joined the Maquis. After the war, Jeanne Modigliani began to search for the truth about her father. In 1952, with a grant from the National Center for Scientific Research, she also embarked on a research on Van Gogh. It was precisely the similarities between the life of the Dutch painter and that of her father that made her return to him, to Modigliani, to whom she devoted herself completely from that moment on. Her constant interest in obtaining official recognition of the value of her father's work was a great success when, in 1981, in Paris, she mounted the most complete exhibition of Modigliani: more than 250 works including paintings, sculptures, gouaches and drawings were part of an exhibition that increased, if possible, the interest in the master. In 1983, she founded the Archives Légales Amedeo Modigliani to classify and protect Modigliani's work. However, Jeanne Modigliani's life was not limited to her documentary work; she inherited her father's mastery of the brush. With a production close to abstract expressionism, sometimes approaching figuration, Jeanne Modigliani's compositions expressed, with total sincerity and freedom, the deepest states of the soul. From the most dynamic and spontaneous compositions to the most calm and soothing, Jeanne knew how to capture in her works her most intimate and personal self.