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  • MODIGLIANI MASTERPIECE AT SOTHEBY’S

    Amedeo Modigliani - Jeanne Hébuterne (au foulard)

    Amedeo Modigliani – Jeanne Hébuterne (au foulard)  UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £38.5 MILLION

    A masterpiece by Amedeo Modigliani – Jeanne Hébuterne (au foulard) –  is among the  highlights at  Sotheby’s London Impressionist & Modern Art evening  sale in London on June 21. In a private collection since 1986 it is now estimated to make more than £28 million.  This elegant and lyrical work is among the most beautiful portraits Amedeo Modigliani painted of his lover Jeanne Hébuterne – revealing a tender moment between a pioneer in the world of modern art and his most loyal muse.

    Jeanne met Modigliani in 1917, when she was a young art student, and for the next three years she was his constant companion and source of inspiration. The two were devoted to each other – with Modigliani even pledging to marry her, despite her family’s protestations. In January 1920, Modigliani died of tubercular meningitis. Following the funeral, a twenty-two year old, and reputedly heavily pregnant, Jeanne was taken to her parents’ home. There, inconsolable, she committed suicide by leaping from an upstairs window.

    Helena Newman, Global Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department, said: “The pioneering Modern style with which Amedeo Modigliani sensuously depicted the female form is inextricably bound with his lover and muse Jeanne Hébuterne. This painting is one of the most alluring portraits that Modigliani painted of her and the finest to come to the market in a decade.”

    (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May  17, 2016)

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