Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz

Amedeo Modigliani, 1916

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Artist: Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884–1920)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 81.3 × 54.3 cm (32 × 21 3/8 in.)
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

After receiving artistic training in Italy, the sculptor and painter Amedeo Modigliani moved to the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse in 1906. It was there that he met the artist Jacques Lipchitz, who, wanting to help his financially troubled friend, commissioned Modigliani to paint this portrait on the occasion of his marriage to the Russian poet Berthe Kitrosser. According to Lipchitz, the picture took Modigliani only two days to paint, though Lipchitz persuaded him to work on it for another two weeks in an effort to pay him a larger fee. Despite Modigliani’s exceptional talent, his work only found a market after his death in 1920, which was hastened by tuberculosis and his legendary bohemian lifestyle.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0.