Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz1916
Amedeo Modigliani created his finest paintings between 1914 and his premature death in 1920. More about this work
About this work
Amedeo Modigliani created his finest paintings between 1914 and his premature death in 1920. Focusing on a limited range of subjects, mainly portraits and nudes, he developed a highly distinctive style of sensitively elongated forms. Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz commissioned Modigliani to paint this portrait on the occasion of his marriage to the poet Berthe Kitrosser as a way of helping his troubled friend financially.
Text from the Art Institute of Chicago.
What you’re looking at
Large painting, standing man blue turtleneck, sitting woman with white collar.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Amedeo Modigliani
Italian, 1884–1920
Modigliani trained in Italy before moving to Paris in 1906, where he lived the precarious life of Montmartre and Montparnasse. Influenced by Cézanne, by African and ancient sculpture, and by his own work as a sculptor with Brâncuși’s encouragement, he developed a distinctive manner of elongated faces, almond eyes and long necks. His portraits of friends and fellow artists, among them Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz, and his reclining nudes date mainly from his last five years. He died of tuberculous meningitis at thirty-five.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1926.221
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Modern Art
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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