Best biography modigliani prints

Modigliani's Portraits
and Figure Paintings

"To do any work, I must have a living person... I must be able to see him opposite me."

Modigliani's portraits and single-figure paintings are among the most memorable and popular images of the early twentieth century.

Accounting for some 90% of his total output, they possess an archetypal quality that sets them apart from the art of his contemporaries in Paris in the first two decades of the last century.

Best biography modigliani prints

Like the artist's nudes, they testify to an enduring fascination with the human form and physiognomy. Modigliani's mastery lies in his ability to retain the essential likeness of his sitters while couching that likeness in his own circumscribed vocabulary of forms.

Modigliani's portraits both draw on tradition and contest it.

Though accepting the premise that a portrait should resemble the sitter, he makes the model conform to his personal formal vocabulary, so that the painting is recognizable in the first ins