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Lot Essay
Painted in 1918, Jeune fille au béret is a striking portrait of a youth whose gaze appears to sear through the viewer. In a sister-picture in the Nagoya City Art Museum, the same sitter appears with her hair in pig-tails hanging over her shoulders. While the door panels in the background appear to be in different positions in the two works, they seem nonetheless to have been painted on the same occasion.
Modigliani's portraiture was the result of his long-standing search for harmony, for a visual window into the soul. He was attempting to capture the essence not only of his sitters, but of humanity itself. The faces in his pictures are often likened to masks, and it is a tribute to the skill and unique vision of the painter that in his portraits, these masks make the viewer all the more aware of the spirit that lies beneath them, and which appears to spill forth from the eyes. In Jeune fille au béret, the eyes are rendered in a penetrating, pure blue reminiscent of Modigliani's pictures of his partner, Jeanne Hébuterne, painted during the same period. The blue spills beyond the iris, into the area that would in reality appear as the white, and this heightens the sense that these eyes are windows into the soul of the sitter.
Modigliani's composition in his portraits often revolves around the eyes. These become the natural focal points for the viewer, engaging us directly in front of the portrait. A process of interaction, rather than simple viewing, is encouraged. By encouraging us to allow our gaze to rest on the eyes, Modigliani ensures that the focus fills our attention, an effect that is heightened by the deliberate contrast between the flesh colours of the foreground and the wood and blue-grey aperture of the background. Even the modulation of tone in the facial features, with the careful introduction of varying tones of flesh and of red, is in part designed to thrust the head of the girl into an almost sculptural relief relative to the deliberate flatness of the background. This lends the painting an immediacy-- it appears to defy the two-dimensional-- while also recalling Modigliani's recently abandoned vocation as a sculptor.
Although the First World War featured little in Modigliani's paintings, it cast a vast shadow over his life, as did the Spanish flu that swept through Europe in 1918. Partly to avoid this, and further incentivised by the German's bombardment of Paris first from the air and then, without warning, by the 'Big Bertha', which was situated some seventy-five miles away, Zborowski decided to take Modigliani to the South of France. This was an idea that suited him in many ways, not least of course avoiding the ever-increasingly perilous capital. A vast migration was taking place at the time, with hundreds of thousands of Parisians fleeing, most of them South. The fact that supplies in Paris had been more and more scarce, and that the art market had evaporated (a tragic irony considering it had only just blossomed for the first time for Modigliani) meant that this flight was seen as a good idea by the painter as well. He assembled an entourage that appeared to grow and grow-- Modigliani's pregnant partner, Jeanne Hébuterne, Jeanne's mother, the painter Chaïm Soutine, and then Tsuguharu Foujita and his own partner.
This menagerie soon found itself in the relative refuge of the South. Part of Zborowski's plan in going there was to sell works, and especially pictures by Modigliani, to the rich clientele that he was sure still haunted the grand and fashionable hotels in Nice and Cagnes, having witnessed them on a prior visit. However, this plan came to nought, and he managed barely to scrape together enough to exist upon-- his costs only increased when the various elements within the group insisted upon staying under different roofs. This lack of fortune had a direct effect on the paintings of Modigliani, especially in terms of content. For the portrait commissions that Zborowski had optimistically assumed would materialise failed to do so. Added to this, Modigliani found few friends in Nice, and the tensions within the family group helped create a shortfall in models. Zborowski's wife and Jeanne featured in many pictures from the period, but Modigliani also found himself turning increasingly to everyday subjects. While the people in Nice were often wary of sitting for a portrait, many people in the outskirts, in the smaller towns and in the countryside would sit for him, as would children and students. This was almost certainly one of the reasons that Jeune fille au béret was painted.
Even when seeking models within his direct acquaintance, Modigliani had usually insisted upon selecting people who somehow fitted into his own aesthetic. In his pictures of 'everyday' subjects, he found himself able to choose these with even more discretion. It was not only the lack of alternative that led him to paint so many pictures of young people during this period. In part, it may have been the prospect of imminent fatherhood that increased his interest in them as a subject, and it has also been pointed out that as an Italian, he was doubtless surrounded by children in his family home when he himself was growing up. Importantly, from the point of view of his painting, children perfectly encapsulated the purity of spirit, combined with engaging character, that he sought to express. In Jeune fille au béret, he manages to convey a true sense of the girl's expression, emotions, perhaps even her fascination with the artist and the artistic process. There is a sense of rebelliousness in the hair, bundled untidily under the hat. The childishness is accentuated by the open mouth. Yet at the same time, the overarching feeling remains one of grace, a characteristic that is only accentuated by the supine, elongated elegance of the head itself.
Jeune fille au béret was owned by Roger Dutilleul, whose vast and impressive collection of modern painting would form the backbone of the Musée d'Art Moderne in Villeneuve d'Ascq. It subsequently passed into the hands of the merchant Jones Netter, who devoted himself to accumulating a formidable collection of pictures by Modigliani, Kisling, Soutine and Utrillo. These he had bought from 1915 onwards, almost all with the help of Modigliani's friend and dealer Léopold Zborowski. Interviewed in 1929, Netter would recall that he generally paid the paltry sum of three hundred francs for Modigliani's canvases. Netter was one of the major collectors who, along with Dutilleul, contributed to the growth in Modigliani's posthumous reputation. It is a tribute to Netter's foresight that within a decade of the artist's death, the paintings for which he had paid only hundreds of francs were selling for hundreds of thousands of francs. Many of the pictures by Modigliani that he once owned now grace the walls of museums in Paris, New York and elsewhere.
Modigliani's portraiture was the result of his long-standing search for harmony, for a visual window into the soul. He was attempting to capture the essence not only of his sitters, but of humanity itself. The faces in his pictures are often likened to masks, and it is a tribute to the skill and unique vision of the painter that in his portraits, these masks make the viewer all the more aware of the spirit that lies beneath them, and which appears to spill forth from the eyes. In Jeune fille au béret, the eyes are rendered in a penetrating, pure blue reminiscent of Modigliani's pictures of his partner, Jeanne Hébuterne, painted during the same period. The blue spills beyond the iris, into the area that would in reality appear as the white, and this heightens the sense that these eyes are windows into the soul of the sitter.
Modigliani's composition in his portraits often revolves around the eyes. These become the natural focal points for the viewer, engaging us directly in front of the portrait. A process of interaction, rather than simple viewing, is encouraged. By encouraging us to allow our gaze to rest on the eyes, Modigliani ensures that the focus fills our attention, an effect that is heightened by the deliberate contrast between the flesh colours of the foreground and the wood and blue-grey aperture of the background. Even the modulation of tone in the facial features, with the careful introduction of varying tones of flesh and of red, is in part designed to thrust the head of the girl into an almost sculptural relief relative to the deliberate flatness of the background. This lends the painting an immediacy-- it appears to defy the two-dimensional-- while also recalling Modigliani's recently abandoned vocation as a sculptor.
Although the First World War featured little in Modigliani's paintings, it cast a vast shadow over his life, as did the Spanish flu that swept through Europe in 1918. Partly to avoid this, and further incentivised by the German's bombardment of Paris first from the air and then, without warning, by the 'Big Bertha', which was situated some seventy-five miles away, Zborowski decided to take Modigliani to the South of France. This was an idea that suited him in many ways, not least of course avoiding the ever-increasingly perilous capital. A vast migration was taking place at the time, with hundreds of thousands of Parisians fleeing, most of them South. The fact that supplies in Paris had been more and more scarce, and that the art market had evaporated (a tragic irony considering it had only just blossomed for the first time for Modigliani) meant that this flight was seen as a good idea by the painter as well. He assembled an entourage that appeared to grow and grow-- Modigliani's pregnant partner, Jeanne Hébuterne, Jeanne's mother, the painter Chaïm Soutine, and then Tsuguharu Foujita and his own partner.
This menagerie soon found itself in the relative refuge of the South. Part of Zborowski's plan in going there was to sell works, and especially pictures by Modigliani, to the rich clientele that he was sure still haunted the grand and fashionable hotels in Nice and Cagnes, having witnessed them on a prior visit. However, this plan came to nought, and he managed barely to scrape together enough to exist upon-- his costs only increased when the various elements within the group insisted upon staying under different roofs. This lack of fortune had a direct effect on the paintings of Modigliani, especially in terms of content. For the portrait commissions that Zborowski had optimistically assumed would materialise failed to do so. Added to this, Modigliani found few friends in Nice, and the tensions within the family group helped create a shortfall in models. Zborowski's wife and Jeanne featured in many pictures from the period, but Modigliani also found himself turning increasingly to everyday subjects. While the people in Nice were often wary of sitting for a portrait, many people in the outskirts, in the smaller towns and in the countryside would sit for him, as would children and students. This was almost certainly one of the reasons that Jeune fille au béret was painted.
Even when seeking models within his direct acquaintance, Modigliani had usually insisted upon selecting people who somehow fitted into his own aesthetic. In his pictures of 'everyday' subjects, he found himself able to choose these with even more discretion. It was not only the lack of alternative that led him to paint so many pictures of young people during this period. In part, it may have been the prospect of imminent fatherhood that increased his interest in them as a subject, and it has also been pointed out that as an Italian, he was doubtless surrounded by children in his family home when he himself was growing up. Importantly, from the point of view of his painting, children perfectly encapsulated the purity of spirit, combined with engaging character, that he sought to express. In Jeune fille au béret, he manages to convey a true sense of the girl's expression, emotions, perhaps even her fascination with the artist and the artistic process. There is a sense of rebelliousness in the hair, bundled untidily under the hat. The childishness is accentuated by the open mouth. Yet at the same time, the overarching feeling remains one of grace, a characteristic that is only accentuated by the supine, elongated elegance of the head itself.
Jeune fille au béret was owned by Roger Dutilleul, whose vast and impressive collection of modern painting would form the backbone of the Musée d'Art Moderne in Villeneuve d'Ascq. It subsequently passed into the hands of the merchant Jones Netter, who devoted himself to accumulating a formidable collection of pictures by Modigliani, Kisling, Soutine and Utrillo. These he had bought from 1915 onwards, almost all with the help of Modigliani's friend and dealer Léopold Zborowski. Interviewed in 1929, Netter would recall that he generally paid the paltry sum of three hundred francs for Modigliani's canvases. Netter was one of the major collectors who, along with Dutilleul, contributed to the growth in Modigliani's posthumous reputation. It is a tribute to Netter's foresight that within a decade of the artist's death, the paintings for which he had paid only hundreds of francs were selling for hundreds of thousands of francs. Many of the pictures by Modigliani that he once owned now grace the walls of museums in Paris, New York and elsewhere.