Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (1884 -1920)

Modigliani, Jewish-Italian artist, Worked mainly in France Where Pablo Picasso thrived His parents, Sephardic Jews lived in Livorno Descendents of Spinoza. He had rebellious genes Pleurisy, T.B. marred his early childhood Raving with typhoid fever, he dreamed of Florence To convalesce, his mother took him there To see the paintings that he yearned to witness. Later, in Venice, he openly smoked hashish Mixed with society's dregs, acted outrageous In Paris, he squatted in communes, With Montmartre's demi- monde, rough vagabonds Dressed in brown corduroys, red scarf, black hat An artist cheek by jowel with sewer rats The mercury sank, quicksilver kingfisher Bedraggled by hashish misuse and absinthe Allowed a chink for his TB to prosper A hundred drawings a day, as many lovers Took a Russian poetess to bed Painted portraits of his artist friends, Soutine, Rivera, Max Jacob, Cocteau Known as Modì, or Dedo to close friends He met the Polish art dealer Zborowski Who kept him solvent, and arranged a show The public called the painter's works obscene The show, closed by the police as an affront And then he met Jeanne Hébuterne, his muse An art student, his mistress and his model They had a daughter, set up home together Till T.B. raised its gorgon head and roared A neighbour found him dying and delirious His wife, himself, both destitute and poor And then, according to the Jewish custom, A funeral at Père Lachaise graveyard Enormous, half of Paris came to mourn Two days after his death, and eight months pregnant Jeanne, aged twenty one, Stepped from her parents; open fifth floor window To join him, with their tiny unborn child A single tombstone honours both the lovers. His states ‘Struck by death at the very moment of glory'. Hers: 'Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice Here are their famous neighbours buried near Delacroix, David, Proust and Molière, Bizet, Chopin, Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Seurat, Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan, Colette, Edith Piaf, and Marceau Post mortem, Dedo's reputation flourished Plays, novels a documentary to his name One biography, three feature films, One nude he made, short of £50 million pounds In life, he bartered paintings for a meal