亚美迪欧莫迪利安尼《两个女孩》伦敦佳士得.docx

1、亚美迪欧莫迪利安尼两个女孩伦敦佳士得亚美迪欧·莫迪利安尼两个女孩（伦敦佳士得2015） 亚美迪欧莫迪利安尼 两个女孩 Les deuxfilles 伦敦佳士得2015.2 成交价758.65万英镑作品介绍Les deux filles is one of only five known double portraitspainted by Modigliani to have been recorded by Ambrogio Ceroni inhis 1970 catalogue raisonn. Throughout his entire oeuvre,Modigliani ge

2、nerally dedicated himself to the isolated figure,exploring no compositional device other than a single human beingviewed face to face. For the most part, it was enough for theartists intense observation of individual characterization toengage with a single model, yet his rare ventures into multiplef

3、igure arrangements are remarkable for their insight into humanrelationships and the energy communicated by different identities.Of Modiglianis five double portraits, two are portraits of bridalcouples, the highly stylized Les poux of 1915 (formerly in thecollection of the Museum of Modern Art, New Y

4、ork, Ceroni no. 55)and the celebrated portrait of his close friend, the sculptorJacques Lipchitz and his wife Bertha (1916, Art Institute ofChicago, Ceroni no. 161). These works celebrate the union betweenwoman and man, whilst Modiglianis other double portraits wouldaddress the theme of mother and c

5、hild (Femme assise avec un enfant,1919, Muse dArt Moderne, Villeneuve-dAscq, Ceroni no. 334; andGitane avec un enfant, 1918, Ceroni no. 247, National Gallery ofArt, Washington) - pictures that owe much to Modiglianis Italianinheritance and his enduring love of the early Renaissance masters.Les deux

6、filles is a tender and perceptive painting that exploresthe connection between two young girls, possibly sisters, whomModigliani has described in a refined visual language that is bothcompellingly subjective and intuitive.Several of the early literature references to Les deux fillessuggest that the

7、composition was painted in 1917 when Modiglianiwas working in Paris, including Arthur Pfannsteils 1929 monograph,in which he describes the sitters as two flowers growing from thepaving stones of the big city (op. cit., p. 119). However, thepainting has since been attributed to 1918 in publications b

8、yCeroni, Osvaldo Patani and Christian Parisot and is now consideredto be part of a group of portraits dedicated to the portrayal ofchildren that Modigliani painted whilst he was living and workingin the South of France (Ceroni, op. cit., p. 100). Modiglianitravelled to the C?te dAzur in March 1918 a

9、nd remained there forover a year. The deprivations of the First World War, the shortageof food and coal had weakened the painters health and when thebombardment of Paris began, his dealer Lopold Zborowski decided tofollow the vast numbers fleeing the perilous capital for the South,taking his conting

10、ent of artists and their closest companions withhim. Cha?m Soutine, Tsuguharu Foujita and Fernande Barrey were allincluded in Zborowskis entourage, and Modigliani was accompaniedby his pregnant mistress, Jeanne Hbuterne and her mother.亚美迪欧莫迪利安尼 两个女孩 Les deuxfilles 局部Part of Zborowskis plan in going

11、to the South of France wasto sell works, and especially pictures by Modigliani, to the richclientele that he was sure still haunted the grand and fashionablehotels in Nice and Cagnes, having witnessed them on a prior visit.However, this plan came to nought, and he barely managed to scrapetogether en

12、ough to exist upon - his costs only increased when thevarious elements within the group insisted upon staying underdifferent roofs. This lack of fortune had a direct effect on thepaintings of Modigliani, especially in terms of content, for theportrait commissions that Zborowski had optimistically as

13、sumedwould materialise failed to do so and he was no longer able to payfor professional models as he had done in Paris. As a consequence,Zborowskis wife and Jeanne sat for many of Modiglianis pictures,but with tensions mounting within the family group, he found itincreasingly necessary to rely on th

14、e local people around him. Thisis almost certainly one of the reasons that Les deux filles waspainted. Yet, it was not only the lack of models that led him topaint so many pictures of young people during this period. In part,it may have been the prospect of imminent fatherhood that increasedhis inte

15、rest in them as a subject, as well as his desire to capturetheir engaging characters and purity of spirit.Modiglianis intelligent awareness of his sitterspersonalities is the result of his long-standing search for avisual window into the soul and he was clearly interested in thepersona of the brunet

16、te girl in this image as he also depicted herin a sister picture, Fillette debout en tablier noir (1918,Kunstmuseum, Basel, Ceroni no. 241). Both Fillette debout entablier noir and the slightly larger Les deux filles have beenexhibited together on numerous occasions to underline their closerelations

17、hip, including exhibitions in Paris and Marseille in 1958and Dsseldorf and Zurich in 1991. In his characteristic study ofan isolated model rendered in three-quarter length, Modiglianidepicts the delicately featured, dark-haired girl standing in aninterior that shares the subtle and masterfully handl

18、ed suffusionof green, greys and ochre hues. This painting contains an entirelydifferent compositional dynamic to the asymmetry of Les deuxfilles, with its grid-like structure provided by the counterbalanceof the horizontal lines of the chest of drawers and the strongverticality of the girls pose. Mo

19、digliani enhances her sense ofchildishness and vulnerability in Fillette debout en tablier noirby depicting her with her hands hanging loosely by her sides andher head tilted at an inquisitive and somewhat awkward angle.亚美迪欧莫迪利安尼 两个女孩 Les deuxfilles 局部In Les deux filles this same girl appears older,

20、 with aseductively heightened colouration and sophisticated hairstyle thatcontrasts with the natural and relaxed appearance of the youngerchild. This juxtaposition grants an almost maternal aspect to theolder girl and creates a remarkably sensitive characterization ofthe transition from childhood to

21、 the threshold of womanhood.Although the relationship between these young models is unknown, itappears Modigliani deliberately chose them for their opposingcharacteristics; the fair hair, blue eyes and clean white pinaforeof the younger girl contrasting with the elders dark colouring andblack smock.

22、 This same smock, with its discreet embroidery andscratched-in seam work is also worn by a different model in a bustportrait from this period, indicating this may well have been alocal school uniform (Jeune fille blonde en buste, 1919, Ceroni no.296). Whilst the model in the later portrait is depict

23、ed with blankvoids for eyes, Modigliani clearly defines his sitters irises inthe present work to lend them an engaging presence that conveys atrue sense of the girls shy, yet candid nature and perhaps eventheir curiosity with the artist and the artistic process.Modiglianis empathy towards his unknow

24、n sitters during thisperiod has been evocatively described by his daughter, JeanneModigliani, who possibly refers to Les deux filles as being animage from Paris, indicating there was still some debate over itsdate at the time: At this time, Modiglianis attitude towards andthe depiction of his models

25、 became calmer and more peaceful. Theapprentice, the porters son, the maid in Cagnes, little Maria, thetwo girls in Paris, all enter Modiglianis pictorial world with asad dignity. Their interior vision, captured in a private dream,accentuates their solitude and at the same time enshrines theirmorali

26、ty with a poetic halo. Their status in life is certainly nota happy one, but they possess nobility and moral values. They arethe most convincing witnesses of the beauty and goodness ofmankind (J. Modigliani cited in Modigliani sans Lgende, exh.cat., Amedeo Modigliani, 1884-1920, Muse National dArt M

27、oderne,Paris, 1981, p. 89).亚美迪欧莫迪利安尼 两个女孩 Les deuxfilles 局部In their subtle psychological insight, pictures like Les deuxfilles owe a substantial debt to the portraits of Czanne.Modigliani greatly admired the pictures of Czanne and his move tothe Midi, where the older master had painted throughout hi

28、s life,may have intensified Modiglianis engagement with his work.Notably, many of Czannes portraits from the 1890s depict childrenand peasants and are rendered with the same sympathy and passivemonumentality that Modigliani brings to his sitters a generationlater. The complex sense of space and mass

29、 in Czannes portraitshad a deep and lasting influence on Modiglianis own portraitstyle, as did the planar distortions of the primitive masks he soadmired. These visual references contribute to the ex-pressiveenergy and imbalance in Les deux filles, particularly in therendering of the younger girls f

30、ace, which features amultidirectional analysis of space similar to that used by theCubists. This deliberate distortion is used to heighten the tensionbetween the two models, contrasting a sense of movement compatiblewith the unsettled temperament of a young child with the serenelyfeminine nature of

31、the older girl to create an image thatpowerfully evokes the eventual path to maturity.Les deux filles clearly displays Modiglianis virtuoso feelingfor paint. His obsession for refining his subjects into simple,interlocking curvilinear forms is evident in the pentimenti visiblebelow the hands of the

32、younger child, where pencil lines chart outhis method of perfecting the composition. Modiglianis handling ofpigment varies across the canvas, from the thin scumbled brushworkused to diffuse the variegated hues of the background to the highlyviscous textures on the figures and chair, the painting manifests apassionate involvement with