Modigliani's inability to pay for models, together with the lack of
clients during the harsh years of World War I - when he was finally
beginning to gain recognition-explain why the artist's works are
populated almost exclusively by men, women, and children from his
own circle, most of whom belonged to the artistic bohemia of Paris.
Jean Cocteau, one of the painter's acquaintances, aptly described
this scene when he said that "in Montparnasse we could afford the
luxury of being poor; poverty was fun.
" Modigliani portrayed each of his fellow bohemians in turn,
including Chaim Soutine, a Lithuanian-born Jew who was destitute
but had boundless admiration for the Italian artist;
Beatrice Hastings, a writer who worked for a British magazine
and had a tempestuous love affair with Modigliani; the poet
Leopold Zborowski and his wife Hanka, who started out as commercial
advisors to Modigliani and eventually became his caretakers when he
fell-ill; and, above all, Jeanne Hebuterne, the artist's last great
love, who gave up everything to follow her unstable-and occasionally
unfaithful--companion even into death. The relationship that bound
all of these figures to Modigliani was summed up in a tribute by
the poet Max Jacob:
"Like an aristocrat, you led a life of simple grandeur. We love you." |
