Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani's Margherita exemplifies a novel and unique form of portraiture. Painted in 1916, this work dates from a pivotal and highly productive moment in the artist’s career. Against a dark, richly impastoed background, the figure of a young girl emerges, her head tilted slightly as she gazes out of the painting, her flushed cheeks illuminated by dazzling pink strokes of color. Although her facial features are stylized, her large, heavily lashed, almond-shaped eyes have a striking intensity, dominating her oval face and creating an enigmatic expression.
It has been suggested that the model for this work is Modigliani’s older sister, Margherita. If this is the case, however, Modigliani would probably have painted her from memory, as he made the last recorded trip to his native Italy in either 1912 or 1913. By many accounts a temperamental and argumentative woman, Margherita never married and, after the tragic death of Modigliani and his wife, Jeanne Hébuterne, she became the adoptive mother of their daughter, also named Jeanne. Modigliani did not have a particularly amicable relationship with his sister, making it unlikely that he painted her. In Jeanne’s own words: “Margherita Modigliani admitted to me that there had been very little sympathy between her and her brother and that Amedeo had steadily refused to discuss painting with her.” It is also possible that the sitter was one of the regular workers who Modigliani met on the streets of Montparnasse.
Dear DailyArt users, we need your help! We are raising $100,000 to develop a new version of the DailyArt app. Learn how you can help us. :) Thank you!
P.S. Learn more about Modigliani's life story through his amazing portraits. <3
Dear DailyArt users! We want to make DailyArt more accessible for you and we're planning to introduce some new language options in our application. If you would like to help us decide, which languages we should choose, please fill in this form :)