Jeanne Hébuterne
Jeanne Hébuterne is mostly remembered in art history as Modigliani’s muse, model, lover, and mother of the artist’s child, Giovanna. The passionate and ultimately tragic love between Jeanne and Modigliani was condemned by the former’s family and poisoned by the latter’s erratic lifestyle and sickness; it ultimately ended with Modigliani’s death on 24 January 1920, followed less than 48 hours later by Jeanne’s suicide, aged 21 and eight-months pregnant.
Hébuterne was herself a painter. It is only very recently that Jeanne Hébuterne, the painter, received her own voice. Like her brother André who also aspired to become a painter, she studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, where she encountered Modigliani in 1916.
This iconic striking self-portrait painted circa 1917 (around the same time Modigliani painted Jeanne’s first portrait) defies the known descriptions of Jeanne being a shy, quiet, and delicate character. With her piercing almond-shaped eyes staring straight out at the beholder and her use of flat, bold colors, Jeanne seems to portray herself as a young woman, confident with her choice of moving in with her sick and drunken lover at her family’s despair.
According to her friends, Jeanne was a skilled painter and tailor, designing her own clothes. The Japanese-inspired robe she proudly wears here is most likely one of her creations. Given the female artist’s premature death and the rarity of her works on the market, Jeanne’s self-portrait is a unique testament, depicting her as the young fair-skinned artist with her two long auburn-brown braids and black headband, the color contrast of which had earned her the nickname "Noix de Coco" (coconut) from fellow Montparnasse artists.