Editing Amedeo Modigliani (section)

==Paris==

=== Arrival ===
[[File:Juan Gris (1887–1927) MET DT2533.jpg|thumb|upright|''Portrait of [[Juan Gris]]'', 1915]]

In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris, then the focal point of the [[avant-garde]]. In fact, his arrival at the centre of artistic experimentation coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: [[Gino Severini]] and [[Juan Gris]].

He later befriended [[Jacob Epstein]], with whom he aimed to set up a studio or Temple of Beauty to be enjoyed by all. Modigliani himself intended to create the drawings and paintings of the stone caryatids for 'The Pillars of Tenderness' which would support the imagined temple.<ref>{{cite web|title=Modigliani Caryatid Drawings|url=http://www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/shop/modigiliani-and-epstein|work=The New Art Gallery Walsall Catalogue|publisher=[[The New Art Gallery Walsall]]|access-date=16 May 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130707074343/http://www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/shop/modigiliani-and-epstein|archive-date=7 July 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Le Bateau-Lavoir, circa 1910.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Le Bateau-Lavoir]] in 1910]]
Modigliani [[Squatting|squat]]ted in the [[Bateau-Lavoir]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Modigliani Caryatid Drawings|url=http://www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/shop/modigiliani-and-epstein|publisher=[[The New Art Gallery Walsall]]|access-date=16 June 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130707074343/http://www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/shop/modigiliani-and-epstein|archive-date=7 July 2013}}</ref> a [[Intentional community|commune]] for penniless artists in [[Montmartre]], renting himself a studio in Rue Caulaincourt. Even though this artists' quarter of Montmartre was characterized by generalized poverty, Modigliani himself presented—initially, at least—as one would expect the son of a family trying to maintain the appearances of its lost financial standing to present: his wardrobe was dapper without ostentation, and the studio he rented was appointed in a style appropriate to someone with a finely attuned taste in plush drapery and Renaissance reproductions. He soon made efforts to assume the guise of the bohemian artist, but, even in his brown corduroys, scarlet scarf and large black hat, he continued to appear as if he were slumming it, having fallen upon harder times.<ref name="Werner 1967 17" />

When he first arrived in Paris, he wrote home regularly to his mother, sketched his nudes at the [[Académie Colarossi]], and drank wine in moderation. At that time, he was considered, by those who knew him, to be a bit reserved, verging on the asocial,<ref name="Werner 1967 17" /> and is noted to have commented, upon meeting [[Picasso]], who at the time was wearing his trademark workmen's clothes, that even though the man was a genius, that did not excuse his uncouth appearance.<ref name="Werner 1967 17" />

===Transformation===
Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. He transformed himself from a dapper academician artist into a sort of prince of vagabonds.

The poet and journalist [[Louis Latourette]], upon visiting the artist's previously well-appointed studio after his transformation, discovered the place in upheaval, the Renaissance reproductions discarded from the walls, the plush drapes in disarray. Modigliani was already an alcoholic and a drug addict by this time, and his studio reflected this. Modigliani's behaviour at this time sheds some light upon his developing style as an artist, in that the studio had become almost a sacrificial effigy for all that he resented about the academic art that had marked his life and his training up to that point.

Not only did he remove all the trappings of his bourgeois heritage from his studio, but he also set about destroying practically all of his own early work, which he described as "Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois".<ref name="Werner 1967 19">{{Cite book| last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1967 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = London | publisher = Thames and Hudson. | page = 19| isbn = 0-8109-0323-7}}</ref>

The motivation for this violent rejection of his earlier self is the subject of considerable speculation. From the time of his arrival in Paris, Modigliani consciously crafted a charade persona for himself and cultivated his reputation as a hopeless drunk and voracious drug user. His escalating intake of drugs and alcohol may have been a means by which Modigliani masked his tuberculosis from his acquaintances, few of whom knew of his condition.<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 181, 183</ref> Tuberculosis—the leading cause of death in France by 1900<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 181</ref>—was highly communicable, there was no cure, and those who had it were feared, ostracized, and pitied. Modigliani thrived on camaraderie and would not let himself be isolated as an invalid; he used drink and drugs as palliatives to ease his physical pain, helping him to maintain a façade of vitality and allowing him to continue to create his art.<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 298</ref>

Modigliani's use of drink and drugs intensified from about 1914 onward. After years of remission and recurrence, this was the period during which the symptoms of his tuberculosis worsened, signaling that the disease had reached an advanced stage.<ref>Secrest, Meryle, Modigliani, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, p. 182</ref>

[[File:Amedeo Modigliani - Nu Couché au coussin Bleu.jpg|thumb|''[[Nu Couché au coussin Bleu]]'', one of the finest examples of reclining nudes by Modigliani, 1916<ref>{{cite web|url=http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/.../279754.pdf |title=Women in Art, PDF|publisher=shareholder.com|access-date=7 September 2018}}{{dead link|date=September 2018}}</ref>]]

He sought the company of artists such as [[Maurice Utrillo|Utrillo]] and [[Soutine]], seeking acceptance and validation for his work from his colleagues.<ref name="Werner 1967 19" /> Modigliani's behavior stood out even in these [[Bohemianism|Bohemian]] surroundings: he carried on frequent affairs, drank heavily, and used [[absinthe]] and [[hashish]]. While drunk, he would sometimes strip himself naked at social gatherings.<ref name="werner-24">{{Cite book | last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1985 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = New York | publisher = Harry N. Abrams, Inc. | isbn = 0-8109-1416-6 | page = [https://archive.org/details/amedeomodigliani0000modi/page/24 24] | url = https://archive.org/details/amedeomodigliani0000modi/page/24 }}</ref> He died in Paris, aged 35. He became the epitome of the tragic artist, creating a posthumous legend almost as well known as that of [[Vincent van Gogh]].

During the 1920s, in the wake of Modigliani's career and spurred on by comments by [[André Salmon]] crediting hashish and absinthe with the genesis of Modigliani's style, many hopefuls tried to emulate his "success" by embarking on a path of substance abuse and bohemian excess. Salmon claimed that whereas Modigliani was a totally pedestrian artist when sober, "...from the day that he abandoned himself to certain forms of debauchery, an unexpected light came upon him, transforming his art. From that day on, he became one who must be counted among the masters of living art."<ref name="Werner 1967 20">{{Cite book| last = Werner | first = Alfred | year = 1967 | title = Amedeo Modigliani | location = London | publisher = Thames and Hudson. | page = 20| isbn = 0-8109-0323-7}}</ref>

Some art historians suggest<ref name="Werner 1967 20" /> that it is entirely possible that Modigliani would have achieved even greater artistic heights had he not been immured in, and destroyed by, his own self-indulgences.

===Output===
During his early years in Paris, Modigliani worked at a furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost—destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them.<ref name="werner-24" />

He was first influenced by [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]], but around 1907 he became fascinated with the work of [[Paul Cézanne]]. Eventually he developed his own unique style, one that cannot be adequately categorized with those of other artists.

He met the first serious love of his life, Russian poet [[Anna Akhmatova]], in 1910, when he was 26. They had studios in the same building, and although 21-year-old Anna had recently married, they began an affair.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/11532201/Modigliani-and-the-Russian-beauty-the-affair-that-changed-him.html "Modigliani and the Russian beauty: the affair that changed him"] Retrieved 21 July 2015</ref> Anna was tall with dark hair, pale skin and grey-green eyes: she embodied Modigliani's aesthetic ideal and the pair became engrossed in each other. After a year, however, Anna returned to her husband.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wycoiv9BJ0QC&q=Secrest%2C+Meryle%2C+Modigliani Secrest, Meryle, ''Modigliani''], Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011, p. 136, {{ISBN|0307595471}}</ref>