Amedeo Modigliani
Paul Guillaume was 23 when Modigliani painted this portrait, which hangs in the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris. Already an established dealer in l'art nègre, Guillaume is presented as the “new helmsman” and defender of contemporary art. His name boldly appears at upper left; at upper right the Star of David is accompanied by the inscription “Stella Maris”; “Novo Pilota” is painted with a flourish at lower left. Modigliani signed the painting at lower right, adding a swastika, which, before its later negative association, was recognized as a Sanskrit symbol meaning “good omen.”
The Russian sculptor Ossip Zadkine, a friend of Modigliani, gave an account of one of Guillaume's sittings for the artist: “Zborowski took Modi to the home of Paul Guillaume, a young art dealer, rather plump and flabby, who exhibited not only cubist paintings but also African sculptures as yet unfamiliar to the general public, of the sort I had noticed some years earlier in the British Museum, with ethnographic labels. Paul Guillaume agreed to have his portrait done by Modigliani. All the sittings and painting sessions took place in a cellar lit by strong electric light and with a liter of wine on the table.”
Modigliani was an Italian Jewish painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for his unique portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces, necks, and figures, which were not received well during his lifetime but later found acceptance and later great acclaim. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. In 1906 he moved to Paris, where he came into contact with such artists as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși. By 1912 Modigliani was exhibiting highly stylized sculptures with Cubists of the Section d'Or group at the Salon d'Automne. From 1909 to 1914 he devoted himself mainly to sculpture but his specialty for both painting and sculpture was portraits and full human figures. He died of tubercular meningitis at the age of 35 in Paris.
- Clinton Pittman
P.S. Here you will find Modigliani’s 100-year-old nudes of a true timeless beauty. <3