Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz

Notes from the museum

After receiving artistic training in Italy, the sculptor and painter Amedeo Modigliani moved to the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse in 1906. It was there that he met the artist Jacques Lipchitz, who, wanting to help his financially troubled friend, commissioned Modigliani to paint this portrait on the occasion of his marriage to the Russian poet Berthe Kitrosser. According to Lipchitz, the picture took Modigliani only two days to paint, though Lipchitz persuaded him to work on it for another two weeks in an effort to pay him a larger fee. Despite Modigliani’s exceptional talent, his work only found a market after his death in 1920, which was hastened by tuberculosis and his legendary bohemian lifestyle.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

Slow Look

1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterised by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and figures — works that were not received well during his lifetime, but later became much sought after. Modigliani was born and spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he came into contact with such artists as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși. By 1912, Modigliani was exhibiting highly stylis

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