His life was brief and stormy, marked by poverty and illness. His rebellious and bohemian character pushed him to a life on the margin of social conventions. All of this led to an unshakeable reputation as a cursed painter and to an exceptional artistic career that makes Amedeo Modigliani today one of the most important figures in Art History.

Modigliani was born into a middle-class Tuscan Jewish family. His mother was a cultured and liberal woman who constantly encouraged her son’s attraction to Art. It was she who asked the master Guglielmo Michele to give Amadeo classes, when he was 13, and it was then that this young man began to express on paper the melancholy sentiments that were the one of the after effects of the serious pulmonary disease he had suffered two years before.

In 1901 his health worsened again, and he travelled to Southern Italy to convalesce in a milder climate. En route, in Rome, he came into contact with the great masterpieces of classical Art, and this strengthened his desire to become a great artist. A year later he enrolled at the Free School of Nude Studies in Florence, and in 1903 he travelled to Venice to study at the Institute of Fine Arts. In the Venetian capital city he experimented with sex, alcohol and drugs . . . habits that would accompany him to the grave.

In 1906 Modigliani moved into the Montmartre quarter of Paris and enrolled at the Colarossi Academy. He lived in the Paris of manifestos, the Fauve revolution, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” There he became acquainted with Cezanne’s work, and he also discovered African art, which would influence his pictorial work so greatly. It was also in these surroundings that he began to sculpt, and although he immediately became very popular in Bohemian circles, he was never really linked with a particular artistic movement.

His inclination for sculpture was soon cut short because of his precarious health. The dust in his workshop affected his breathing, and this led him to concentrate exclusively on painting. In 1917 his first individual exhibition was held at the Berthe gallery. His rotund nudes scandalized the public, and the police threatened to close the gallery down. He only sold two drawings and the five paintings that the gallery owner took as payment.

His works are full of melancholy. They attempt to delve into the model’s soul using simple lines and with flat, expressionless eyes. The subject’s hands are always visible, and the heads, on long and slender necks, lean to one side. His work is easily recognizable, and that is surely the reason why Modigliani has become known as a painter without a school. He was a unique artist.

Modigliani died in a hospital in Paris in the most absolute poverty. Drinking and tuberculosis brought death to him at the age of 36. His common-law wife committed suicide five days later, adding strength to his legend. She was almost nine months pregnant. Pablo Picasso was probably not referring to her when he said, “Modigliani, despite his disorderly habits, was capable of uplifting the life of everyone else.”