Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani
Reclining Nude
Oil on canvas
23 7/8 x 36 1/2”
1917

Amedeo Modigliani (July 12 1884 - January 24 1920) was a Jewish-Italian artist who painted portraits of women. He did not want to be classified by any of the art movements at the time such as Dada or Cubism.

Reclining Nude is one of many works of art inspired by his muse and lover Jeanne Hebuterne. A statement provided by the Met Museum website, "Unlike depictions of Venus from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, in which mythological or allegorical attributes provide a context for the figure’s nudity, Modigliani provocatively presents his Reclining Nude without any such references, highlighting the figure’s eroticism."

Jeanne was his last and most influential muse. She was fourteen years younger than he and she was extremely devoted to him. She even killed herself the day after he died of tuberculosis. She was nine months pregnant at the time.