Amedeo Modigliani
Last month we featured the portrait of Anna Akhmatova from the collection of the State Russian Museum. You must know that sometimes when we feature one amazing work we go deeper and deeper and find other amazing masterpieces, like this drawing by Modigliani that probably presents Anna Akhmatova. It is mesmerizing!
Anna Akhmatova was one of the most significant Russian poets of the 20th century. She was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in 1965 and received the second-most nominations (three) for the award the following year.
In 1910 Akhmatova spent her honeymoon in Paris, where she met and befriended the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. In this time she had "her first taste of fame," becoming renowned of her talent as well for her intense magnetism and allure, attracting the fascinated attention of a great many men. Modigliani in Paris created at least 20 paintings of her, including several nudes. It looks like a perfect match of the painter and the model. It is striking how Modigliani depicted an individual with such a strong character on paper. Here Akhmatova is not a romanticized sexy lady or a villainess. She is an individual.
P.S. Amedeo Modigliani painted so many portraits of women (especially nude ones) that people began to see him as a reckless playboy, an image that he undoubtedly did not seek to change. Discover the story behind Modigliani’s portraits here.