Amedeo Modigliani

He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy, in 1902, before settling in Venice the following year, where he began experimenting with sculpture. In 1906, he relocated to Paris and immersed himself in the city’s avant-garde scene, where he met artists such as Constantin Brancusi and Pablo Picasso. His distinctive nudes and portraits of friends, patrons, and loved ones from the artistic community of Montmartre feature striking contours, elongated bodies, and introspective expressions. Influenced by Italian Renaissance painting, Baule masks, and his contemporaries, Modigliani portrayed his subjects with sensitivity and formal clarity. After a pivotal meeting with Brancusi in 1909, Modigliani devoted himself to sculpture for several years. In 1914, he returned to painting; marking the beginning of a prolific period in which he created more than 250 canvases before his untimely death in 1920.

Modigliani exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, Paris (1907, 1912), and in the Salon des Indépendants, Paris (1908, 1910, 1911). The only solo exhibition held during his lifetime took place at Galerie Berthe Weill, Paris, in 1917. Since his death, Modigliani has garnered international acclaim. Retrospectives of his work have been presented at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1951), which traveled to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (1951); The Jewish Museum, New York (2004); Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France (2016), which traveled to the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest (2016) and Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki (2017); Tate Modern, London (2017–18); The Albertina Museum, Vienna (2022); Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2022–23); Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris (2023–24); and Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany (2024), among others. Works by Modigliani are held in major institutional collections worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris; Museu de Arte de São Paulo; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Tate, London, among others.