Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani studied Fine Arts from 1898 in Livorno, Florence, then in Paris where he settled in 1906. He lived in Montmartre district and regularly went to Le Bateau-Lavoir, meeting place for artists, where he met Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob. He painted portrayals then feminine nudes inspired by the fauvism techniques and Cézanne. His paintings represent outstretched figures with almond-like eyes, often without pupil. In 1907 and 1908, Modigliani exhibited at the Grand Palais and at the Salon des Indépendants and was quite successful. In 1909, he moved to Montparnasse in order to try sculpture. Suffering from a pulmonary disease since he was a teenager, the artist did not support all the dust created by this new activity and quickly returned to painting. Yet, this experience gave him a strong taste for simple forms, which was seen in his latest works like Max Jacob (1916), Seated nude (1917), or Boy in a blue shirt (1918).