Beatrix Potter Blog

Recently, We needed to get a house warming present for friends but we were utterly out of      ideas. On a similar special occasion they had presented me with a quaich, a Scottish symbol of everlasting friendship, so i believed I had to get something more than just a greeting card.

Our friends really are an extraordinary couple you just can’t classify easily.  They are surely  clever, witty and true individuals and considering they were relocating to a new house, I decided a decorative object could be appropriate, but I was at a loss as to what to choose? My own preference runs to items from the ancient world, like {Roman art} and Greek sculpture. I spent days searching for something symbolic, a gift that had a story, but Aphrodite didn’t seem right, an Alexander bust was something I knew our friends already had and Hippocrates might have been perfect for a physician, but not for an IT professional and a lawyer. What I needed was a little something the same and also, like my friends, very different.

My eventual decision was a Modigliani sculpture, an elongated female head sculpture very different from the classical figurines I had thought about but exactly the same. Classical and primitive simultaneously Modigliani sculpture is plainly inspired by African Masks and Polynesian sculpture, sleek and curved whilst prolonged and angular, it’s the contradiction that helps make the sculpture so memorable.

Modigliani’s tale is a sad one. Born in 1884, his knack for painting was clear from an early age, but his life was destroyed by tuberculosis.  His mother guaranteed he had the top training, and he was very well respected by his art teacher, even though he designed his own unique style that has much more in common with the angular Art Deco movement yet to come than the curvaceous Art Nouveau still in vogue. Most of all, it’s even now a style of it’s own, quite individual.

Similar to countless now well-known artists Modigliani was basically unknown in his own lifetime. He created a massive quantity of work, frequently as much as one hundred drawings per day, however on many occasions he presented these to close friends or girlfriends who did not keep them. It appears as if he knew his life would be short, and possibly as a result of that, he took to drugs and alcohol, to the stage where many explained his one of a kind style had been credited entirely to hashish, although it was plainly not true.   He was a follower of Nietzsche and Baudelaire and came to the conclusion true creativity involved dysfunction and defiance. At some point in his career he demolished many of his previous art declaring them substandard.

As time passed his wellness became even worse. He was turned down for military service in the First World War and continued to live in Paris, never knowing if the upcoming payment of his allowance would appear. He was good looking and affable and women liked him, but although he was able to showcase a few art works in the course of his life, he never made any money from them.

Modigliani died a pauper, from meningitis, his sheets stained with oily fat from a sardine can, the one thing he had left to eat.  As always, there was a female involved. Much younger than Modigliani and on the day he died nearly 9 months pregnant with their second child. Right after his passing the woman’s family took her home and the lady stepped back out of a window, killing herself and the unborn infant.

The stories about Modigliani’s life are full of contradiction. Many have tried to say that the girl, Jeanne Hebuterne had been simply one more passing fancy for the artist, but their daughter’s analysis revealed the lady had been an artist in her own right. The woman’s ssculptures were shown for the very first time in an exhibition in 2000.

As for the Modigliani art we settled on, the sculpture is elongated and narrow depiction of a woman’s head that is both soft yet striking. Unfortunately we cannot know who she is intended to be; there isn’t any tale unless we make one.  Virtually no distinct type of room decoration is required. The Modigliani bust would be welcome anywhere.

Personally, part of the charm of this item as a gift is the similarity between the artisan and my friends. Equally funny, clever and captivating, a rebel and an individual. There the characteristics between them end.