Amedeo Modigliani
Italian, 1884–1920
Modigliani's painted oeuvre consists almost exclusively of portraits and female nudes. His distinctive personal style coalesced in a series of honest, penetrating portraits of friends and colleagues executed between 1914 and 1916; sitters include the artists Juan Gris (1887-1927), Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973), Picasso, Diego Rivera, and Chaim Soutine (1893-1943); and the critics and dealers Paul Guillaume and Léopold Zborowski. From about 1916, Modigliani's style became highly mannered, with an increasingly exaggerated elongation of the neck and other bodily proportions. In 1916 Modigliani met Jeanne Hébuterne, with whom he lived until his death. Modigliani's health began to seriously decline in 1918; he died of tuberculosis, aggravated by drugs and alcohol, in January 1920.