Meryle Secrest
Page 41
“hewn from a plank”: SCH, p. 26.
“With one eye”: SII, interview.
“nothing is mannered”: SCH, p. 44.
dangerously primitive notions: Les Arts à Paris, November 1920, no pagination.
“They laughed at”: To Vanni Scheiwiller, April 6, 1932; Modigliani Vivo, testimonianze inedite e rare, pp. 39–40.
“with passion, with violence”: Les Arts à Paris, November 1920, no pagination.
rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré: According to his biographer, Colette Giraudon, Guillaume moved there in October 1917.
“the most complete and perfect”: Alfred Werner, “The Eternal Modigliani,” Amedeo Modigliani, October 14–November 13, 1971, Acquavella Galleries, no pagination.
“He usually began”: SCH, p. 203.
“The remedy was”: SII, interview.
“I’ll paint you another one”: SII interview.
Born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz: SI, p. 208; “so lovable, so gifted”: SI, pp. 207–08.
“He … made a lot of”: SI, p. 209.
“two portraits on one”: SI, p. 196.
“radiance and the beauty”: Ambrogio Ceroni, “Les Souvenirs de Lunia Czechowska,” Amedeo Modigliani, peintre, p. 20.
“This was a real artist”: Idem, p. 28.
“a wet chicken”: SI, p. 337.
the baby had died: PAR, p. 300.
a permanent scar: GRA, p. 389.
“To reach the [house]”: Marevna, Life with the Painters of La Ruche, p. 117; “A shattering of glass”: Idem.
a tempestuous affair: GRA, p. 345.
a dream landscape: MP, p. 209.
“bourgeois spirited”: GRA, p. 388; “the most foul beings”: Idem.
the cobweb bridge: John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, p. 804a.
Pina fired a shot: GRA, p. 414.
“seized the gun”: Frederick S. Wight, “Recollections of Modigliani by Those Who Knew Him,” Italian Quarterly, 1958, p. 42.
Picasso took command: A Life of Picasso, vol. 2, p. 427.
CHAPTER TWELVE · “NENETTE”
A description of the Hébuterne apartment is given in a letter from Odette Lasserre to Anne Modigliani, May 21, 2005.
“in her romantic way”: SII, interview.
at the age of seventeen: In April 1914.
“Please don’t die”: FL.
“a precious stone”: Idem.
“they must suffer”: Idem.
“she often went ‘head to head’ ”: Interview with author.
“the appalling tyranny”: C. R. W. Nevinson, Paint and Prejudice, pp. 62–63. This comment was written in 1938.
“women belonged in the home”: Bryher, The Heart to Artemis, p. 155.
Jours de famine et misère, the original title, was subsequently retitled Jours de famine et de détresse when it was reissued in 1970.
Why was she drawn: SE, p. 74
“vicieuse et sensuelle”: Phyllis Birnbaum, Glory in a Line, A Life of Foujita, p. 115.
They became lovers: Patrice Chaplin, Into the Darkness Laughing, p. 54.
her parents knew nothing: SE, p. 93.
“It’s a shame that I made a kid”: TRIB.
“a little less hate”: JM, pp. 115–16.
They moved in July 1917: SE, p. 101.
“His joy was such”: SI, p. 358.
“Maintenant silence”: Now silence / and suddenly with the falling mist / the accordion speaks of love to the kitchen maids and street sweepers …” (author’s translation).
Zborowski had to represent Soutine: Paul Guillaume et les peintres du XXe siècle, p. 128.
“generous, natural and calm”: Kenneth Clark, The Nude, p. 124.
“violent transitions”: Idem, p. 360; “an enraged protest”: Idem, p. 361.
“no moral objections”: SI, p. 47.
“his nudes evoke”: Idem, p. 47.
“prickly, peppery”: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, vol. 1, pp. 163–64.
the objectionable nudes: SCH, pp. 204–05.
sold at the Hôtel Drouot: Francis Carco, The Last Bohemia, p. 231 note.
“He came with me”: Idem, pp. 234–35; “was about to sell some clothes,”: Idem; Zborowski “never doubted”: Idem, p. 235.
“That very same day”: Interview with author.
“I became his disciple”: A Life of Picasso, vol. 2, p. 302.
“In those days”: Roger Dutilleul, “L’Art et l’Argent,” Art Present, 1948 (author’s translation).
“Modi was just everything”: SII, interview.
“Just as Modigliani’s art”: SE, p. 14.
the roof fell in: Colin Jones, Paris, Biography of a City, p. 440; the killed and injured: Idem.
thirty million died: Washington Post, December 22, 2006.
“a persistent rumor”: PL, p. 145.
They would just leave: Luc Prunet to author.
“thin and emaciated”: SCH, p. 205.
“relations … became more … strained”: JM, p. 89.
“He had no other attachment”: SII, interview.
“The crowd had doubled”: René Gimpel, Diary of an Art Dealer, p. 70.
next day he forgot: Artist Quarter, p. 280; SII, p. 421.
André discovered the baby: Luc Prunet to author.
“He saw that as proof”: SE, p. 156. Restellini notes that André Hébuterne kept a diary of his World War I experiences and that he was given access to this vital testimony so as to date the movements of, not only André, but Jeanne, Amedeo, and Jeanne’s mother more exactly. The author was not given permission to see this journal. André broke the news to his father: Luc Prunet to author. The atmosphere worsened (“s’ensuivront des explications orgueuses entre André et Jeanne”): SE, p. 156.
“close up like an oyster”: Prunet to author.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN · “LIFE IS A GIFT”
“Modigliani was absolutely thrilled”: Ambrigio Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani, Peintre, p. 26.
“The baby is well”: Undated letter, JM, pp. 91–92.
could do nothing with her: Idem, p. 89.
“As a husband”: FL.
“lost ewe”: André Hébuterne diary.
“I have kept”: Amedeo Modigliani, Peintre, pp. 26–27.
“sad and beautiful,”: Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919, p. 26; “Along the quais”: Idem.
“The father seemed thrilled”: SE, p. 156.
“Mlle Jane Hebuterne”: JM, p. 112.
He seemed in good spirits: Marevna, Life with the Painters of La Ruche, pp. 148–49.
newspaper reviews: Modigliani and His Models, Royal Academy of Arts, July–October 2006, p. 70.
“With flat, Slavonic”: Osbert Sitwell, Laughter in the Next Room, pp. 164–65; the average gallery price: Idem, p. 167.
“a tuppeny damn”: Hugh Blaker diaries, University of Wales, March 31, 1932.
“It seemed ridiculous”: Kenneth Clark, Another Part of the Wood, pp. 78–79.
the prices would double: Colette Giraudon, interview with author.
“Modigliani did not immediately comply”: Laughter in the Next Room, p. 177.
“a little bit of brain”: Artist Quarter, p. 298.
“It is only in the final phase”: André Salmon, Modigliani: A Memoir, pp. 207–08.
a magnificent English wool scarf: Amedeo Modigliani, Peintre, p. 30.
“he kissed the paper”: SII, interview, p. 8.
“fidgeted, smoked”: SI, p. 337.
“I couldn’t believe”: Italian Quarterly, 1958, p. 43.
a month before he died: Modigliani vivo, pp. 77–86.
he had made her look ugly: PAR, p. 298.
a box of Gitanes cigarettes: Billy Klüver and Julie Martin, Kiki’s Paris, p. 88.
“cough a lot”: Idem.
“a ravishing blond”: Amedeo Modigliani, Peintre, p. 30.
“Life is a gift”: Idem; “Renée did not hold”: Idem, p. 32; “Poor dear friend”: Idem, p. 29.
they never did: Idem, p
. 33.
attempted to reconcile: SI, p. 482.
the needed legal papers: JM, p. 111.
“un chat se gratte la tête”: SI, p. 484.
likened it to a mask: Modigliani and His Models, Royal Academy of Arts, pp. 42–43.
“thinly applied paint”: Kenneth E. Silver and Romy Golan, The Circle of Montparnasse, pp. 18–19.
“Overeating—that’s the only thing”: SI, pp. 485–86.
“It was astonishing”: SI, p. 488; Artist Quarter, pp 414–15.
“Great artists like these”: Interview with author.
“he liked contemplating death”: Artist Quarter, p. 232.
“like a child”: SI, p. 491.
an ancient doxology: Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yiddish, pp. 162–63.
believed he was destitute: SII, interview.
advice about money: SI, p. 490.
more than she could bear: PAR, p. 47.
a phantom boat: SI, pp. 496–97.
out of sheer childish pettiness: SI, p. 497.
a letter Zborowski sent: On January 31, 1920; JM, p. 114.
He claimed to be the one: SCH, p. 198.
“His friends and I”: JM, p. 114.
he could still stand: PAR, p. 220.
called a meeting: KIS, p. 130.
eight hundred francs apiece: Artist Quarter, p. 301.
boasting about the deals: John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, vol. 1., p. 352.
mysteriously acquired: PAR, p. 221.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN · THE CULT OF THE SECRET
“Black is the color”: Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Dimension, p. 305, note 59.
“he’ll soon be living”: SI, p. 499.
Quenneville said she found: PAR, 329.
“[M]ore and more”: SE, p. 188.
It could represent Maldoror: Idem, p. 190.
“the last ‘strangers’ ”: FL.
rates of suicide: Washington Post, July 7, 2008.
“in spiritual agony”: New York Times Magazine, July 6, 2008.
makes no mention: SI, p. 56.
Jeanne had been moved: From the death notices.
the portrait of Varvogli: PAR, p. 239.
some of her brains: From interviews conducted by Klüver and Martin.
she woke herself up: Ambrogio Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani, Peintre, p. 34.
not yet been paid: Elle, April 1958, p. 95.
She is ours: GE, October 1923, p. 56.
Life was worth believing in: PAR, p. 45.
they made a declaration in Paris: March 28, 1923.
“some well-tended plants”: GE, February 18, 1927, p. 104.
she died in Florence: GE, July 27, 1927, p. 105.
“She was the lackey”: Elle, April 1958, p. 97; “Tante Marguerite”: Idem.
called her a sadist: Victor Leduc, Les Tribulations d’un idéologue, p. 64.
green-flecked eyes: Elle, April 1958, p. 97.
“She was very droll”: Interview with Jean-Pierre Haillus.
“like actors wearing masks”: Les Tribulations d’un idéologue, p. 66.
“determinant, crucial”: Interview with Dominique Desanti.
“Her rebellion”: Les Tribulations d’un idéologue, p. 64.
arrested … released: Dates of October 18, 1943, and January 1944 respectively, courtesy of René Glodek.
“She looked the Germans”: Interview with René Glodek.
“Resistance soup”: Jean-Pierre Haillus to author.
had divorced Mario Levi: By April 1, 1946.
“by whom I also had a daughter”: Les Tribulations d’un idéologue, p. 92.
“He had a double life”: Interview with author.
married Jeanne: On August 14, 1957.
“they were very poor”: Interview with author.
does not share: Haillus, interview with author.
still modestly priced: Gerald Reitlinger, The Economics of Taste, p. 393.
“a dream come true”: Interview with author.
Zborowski had hired people: Interview with author.
signed each other’s work: Interview with author.
nothing he could do: René Gimpel, Diary of an Art Dealer, p. 385. (December 13, 1929.)
“ ‘Étude in Tunis’ ”: Modigliani vivo, testimonianze inedite e rare, p. 48. (December 12, 1932.)
four caryatids: Fakes and Forgeries, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1973, figures 207–10.
A portrait of a woman sold: January 15, 1958, and at Christie’s for sale July 2, 1974. Further information was requested in 2006 from Guy Bennett, then director of Impressionist and Modern Painting at Christie’s, for this and two other queried Modiglianis sold by Christie’s. No reply was received.
“the question of Modigliani’s authenticity”: RE, p. 12.
“The droit morale”: Artnews, January 2004.
“runs directly counter”: RE, p. 12.
“she signed … certificates”: Artnews, idem.
Elmyr de Hory collaborated with Jeanne; “brought some Modigliani”: Clifford Irving, Fake, p. 134.
“a passionate admirer”: Réal Lessard, L’Amour du faux, p. 99.
“not being listed”: Artnews, idem.
“is an absolute mystery”: Interview with author.
archives are now in Rome: As of January 1910, the address of the archives is: “Modigliani Institut Archives Légales Paris-Rome,” Palazzo Taverna, via di Monte Giordano 36, Rome. Tel: 39-069826220, www.modigliani-amedeo.com.
“will have to work”: Artnews, September 2006.
court of appeals sentence: Agence France Presse, January 11, 2010.
“used his well-known role”: Le Monde, December 19, 2008.
“I am disappointed”: Art Newspaper, May 2002.
“Marc, what have you done?”: Interview with author.
buying a fake painting with fake money: Interview with author.
“The contrast between”: JM, xvii.
“her portraits of”: New York Times, November 30, 1958.
“it seems to me”: On July 15, 1920.
would keep a memento: Luc Prunet.
The family’s anger: Christian Parisot, Modigliani e i suoi, p. 16.
“an inner conviction”: Interview with author.
nude and completely drunk: Jean-Pierre Haillus.
“Everything in her life”: Interview with author.
“One does not understand”: Interview with author.
“until she finally”: Patrice Chaplin, Into the Darkness Laughing, p. 144.
EPILOGUE
“half-ecclesiastical”: P. D. James, The Lighthouse, p. 5.
spiritual calm: Nina Hamnett, Laughing Torso, p. 159.
“stony silence”: SCH, p. 206.
found a one-hundred-franc note: Laughing Torso, idem.
“Everything was a mess”: Interview with Godefroy Jarzaguet.
“nobody actually died”: Interview with Alexandra Marsiglia.
limits his praise: Douglas Cooper, Great Private Collections, p. 286.
“The universities where”: RE, p. 11; “Forgeries appeared”: Idem.
“no such influence”: SCH, p. 53; “the individuality”: Idem.
“extremely radical … conception”: RE, p. 22.
“Where myth and anti-myth”: “Modigliani,” Arts Council of Great Britain, introduction by John Russell to the exhibition at the Tate, London, September 28–November 3, 1965, p. 5.
“the free imagination”: Lionello Venturi, Italian Painting from Caravaggio to Modigliani, p. 159.
INDEX
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Abrantes, Maud, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 11.1, 12.1
absinthe
Abstract Expressionism
Académiciens Goncourt
Académie Clorarossi (Paris), 5.1, 12.1
Académie de la Grande Chaumière (Paris), 12.1, 12.2
Académie Julian (Paris)
Accademia delle Belle Arti (Florence), 4.1, 5.1, 5.2
&nbs
p; Acquavella Galleries (New York)
Action (newspaper), 14.1
“Adonais” (Shelley), 3.1, 3.2
African masks and sculpture, 7.1, 11.1, 14.1
Aicha (model)
Akhmatova, Anna, 1.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 11.1
Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo)
Alexandre, Jean, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.1, 9.1, 13.1
Alexandre, Jean-Baptiste, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1
Alexandre, Noël, 2.1, 3.1, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 9.2, 13.1
Alexandre, Paul, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 9.2, 12.1, 13.1; Brancusi and, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5; collection of, 7.3, 8.4, 14.1; correspondence with, 7.4, 7.5, 8.5, 8.6, 9.3; departure for Vienna of, 7.6; house rented for artists’ colony by, 6.6, 6.7; medical practice of, 6.8, 6.9, 7.7, 13.2; parties and gatherings hosted by, 6.10, 6.11, 6.12, 6.13, 7.8; portrait of, 7.9; portraits of family members commissioned by, 6.14, 7.10; in World War I, 8.7, 10.1, 13.3
Alexandre, Pierre
Allied Artists Association, Salon of (London)
Allo specchio (At the Mirror) (Modigliani), 4.1
Altounian, Joseph
Amazon, The (Modigliani), 7.1, 9.1, 13.1
Amedeo Modgliani Foundation (Rome)
Amour du faux, L’ (Lessard), 14.1
Anderson, Scott
Ange au visage grave, L’ (Restellini), 8.1
Animaux Peint par eux-mêmes, Les (Doré), 3.1
Annunzio, Gabriele d’, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 6.1, 8.1, 13.1
Anouilh, Jean
anti-Semitism, 9.1, 14.1
Antoninus
Apollinaire, Guillaume, 1.1, 2.1, 4.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 10.1, 11.1
“Apologia of an Art Historian” (Clark)
Archipenko, Alexander, 8.1, 9.1, 12.1
Archives of American Art (Washington, D.C.), 14.1
“Archives Légales Amedeo Modigliani”, 14.1
Argent, L’ (Zola), 5.1
Ariosto, Ludovico
Aristotelianism
Arlequin et sa compagne (Picasso), 6.1
Armory Show (New York, 1913), 9.1, 9.2, 10.1
Army, U.S.
Arp, Jean
Art Dealers Association
Art Institute (Chicago)
Artist Quarter (Douglas), 1.1, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1, 9.1, 10.1, 11.1, 11.2, 12.1, 13.1
Artnews (magazine), 14.1, 14.2
Art Nouveau, 5.1, 8.1
Ashkenazic Jews
Assassins, Les (Paris)
Assiette au Beurre, L’ (magazine), 7.1