Modi, Jeanne & Anna Akhmatova

Amadeo Modigliani was born on July 12 1884.

What I am searching for is neither the real nor the unreal, but the Subconscious the mystery of what is Instinctive in the human Race.
Modigliani’s intense artistic, spiritual [for him no distinction existed between these two states of being] search to express what he saw as the mysterious, innermost beauty of the human soul, drew him to Buddhist, Indian, Greek, Etruscan, Egyptian, African, early Italian and Renaissance art. (via)

Jacques Becker directed Les Amants de Monpartnasse starring Gerard Philipe and Anouk Aimee.

French + Spanish full film

“Everything rings true in this totally false film. Everything is illuminated in this obscure film. For he who leaps into the void owes no explanations to those who watch.” Jean Luc Godard

Montparnasse 19 was originally to have been directed by Max Ophüls with a script by Henri Jeanson. Becoming ill, Ophüls turned the project over to Jacques Becker. Dissatisfied with Jeanson’s script, Becker re-wrote the scenario. (Leap into the Void, Godard and the Painter)

Read the sad story of Jeanne Hubuterne here.

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Anna Akhmatova anna1

This tender, moving drawing portrays Akhmatova as both Egyptian goddess. And poet lost in her dream.
Erotic in its restraint and languid, sensual pose, it evokes the elongated body and ‘helmet’ of hair of the Egyptian queens and goddesses depicted in the Louvre reliefs Modigliani and Akhmatova returned to, time and again, during the summer of 1911.

Anna Akmatova’s crucial role in Modigliani’s art (many great images and text)

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 was recently married, they began an affair. Tall (Modigliani was only 5 foot 5 inches) with dark hair (like Modigliani’s), 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.
Gallery of works (wiki Modigliani)

  • “Anna Akhmatova’e memoir, fifty-four years later, of her affair with Modigiliani in 1911. Sitting in the rain under an unreliable umbrella in the Luxemberg Gardens and reciting Verlaine to each other — unable to afford anything Gander” Page 7 David Markson – Vanishing Point.

  • Slideshow of Modi’s imprtant paintings on youtube

    Jeanne Modigliani, the only surviving daughter of Modi and Jeanne is on wiki here.