Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani arrived in Paris in 1906, a handsome, sickly Italian with classical training and a desire to burn it all down. He immersed himself in the ferment of Montparnasse, drawing influence from Brancusi's sculpture, African masks, and the linear elegance of Italian Renaissance painting, synthesizing them into a style entirely his own. His subjects—friends, lovers, dealers—were rendered with serene, mask-like faces, elongated necks, and almond eyes that often gazed into a private distance. His life was a textbook bohemian tragedy: plagued by tuberculosis, addiction, and poverty, he worked feverishly, often trading portraits for meals. His serene nudes occasionally caused scandal. He died destitute at 35, and his pregnant lover, Jeanne Hébuterne, killed herself two days later. The myth of the doomed artist soon took hold, and the elegant, melancholic paintings that barely sold in his lifetime became some of the most coveted and expensive of the modern era.