Dispelling the myths

Softer lines: Femme au col blanc

Welcome to the world of the Annonciade, a small museum with a big collection and a lot of clout. Each year, they use their reputation to put together high-profile exhibitions, the latest of which celebrates the Master of Leghorn, Amedeo Modigliani.

Modigliani lived in France between 1906 and 1920. Although he was based in Paris he stayed in Nice and Cannes between 1917 and 1919 and it was here that he produced some of his most famous paintings. Monery explains that he originally wanted to concentrate solely on work from this period but that it proved to be too great a challenge. It would, he estimates, take years to collect the required works, and so the focus shifted to revealing the artist through two different periods in his career.

The starting point is the work from Modilgliani’s first years in Paris, figures with mask-like faces and body forms closely aligned to those in primitive, Egyptian and Antquity art. These paintings and sketches are strongly linked to sculpture.

Modigliani had arrived in Paris as a classical painter but his intention was to become a sculptor. It was as such that he first introduced himself to others in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a commune for penniless artists in Montmartre. It was only after he befriended the Romanian master Constantin Brâncui that the young Italian developed his own distinctive sculpting style. It was the great tragedy of his life that due to constant bouts of illness he became too physically debilitated to sculpt, finally giving it up completely around 1914, having produced just 24 sculptures. These are now highly coveted (in June one sold at auction in Paris for a record-breaking 43 million euros), so much so that Monery was unable to procure one for the exhibition.

The second period of work displays a softer, more linear style akin to classical or renaissance paintings and particularly reminiscent of Ingres. This, Monery believes, reflects the painter’s last years when he had settled with his partner Jeanne Hébuterne.

Regarding his personal life, Monery says the story most people know is based on myth and legend. Modigliani died destitute at the age of 35 and has since come to be viewed as the epitome of the tragic artist. After his death his reputation soared - numerous novels and films have been devoted to him - yet the curator claims the reality of his life remains little known. This exhibition wants to eliminate the myths. The catalogue doesn’t indulge in the scandals, the affairs, the drink and drugs, and all the other La Bohème clichés: it instead translates the life of a master painter, the reality of which is found in the work itself.

For example, when Modigliani first came to France he was a skilled painter - you might look at his work and think of Cézanne. However, after discovering a passion for sculpting that he could not indulge, he tried to get the same satisfaction from painting. As a result, he developed a unique style, one that cannot be equated with other artists.

In this exhibition there are portraits of his lovers Beatrice Hastings and Hébuterne and sketches of his friends, Picasso, Diego Riviera and Léopold Zborowski.

Opening last month, the show has been a success: Monery says that although tourists come to Saint-Tropez for the beach, when they see Modigliani’s name they are naturally drawn into the museum. The handsome Amedeo is, after all, a celebrity and for all the negativity his posthumous reputation carries, the public cannot help but be attracted to the very legend that this exhibition tries to dispel.

HM