Amadeo Modigliani

Visited the Modigliana exhibition at the Royal Academy this afternoon. Fabulous! Go see, it's on till 15th October. Modigliani was an Jewish-Italian painter and sculpter who spent most of his creative years in Paris.

modigliani105 Hosted on Zooomr

He was something of the womaniser, but settled down with beautiful Jeanne Hébuterne, an artist herself, who stayed with him despite his drinking, drug-taking and impoverished means. He died of tubercular meningitis aged 35, and Hébuterne, despite being heavily pregnant, committed suicide shortly after. Interestingly, his only self-portrait was the last picture he created (unlike most artists of the time), which was on show at the exhibition.

I find his style interesting for several reasons. Firstly, despite his distinctive and odd way of representing his models (long necks, and eyes often left blank), they still come across as being elegant. It seems Modigliani grabs their characteristics and moulds them in his style. The colours he uses are vibrant, yet with little to distract from the main character of the painting. Here is my first effort at his style (apologies for the lighting - will try taking another picture in daylight!)

DSC05788 Hosted on Zooomr