1947 After Amedeo Modigliani "Madame Hébuterne", First Edition Parisian Lithograph

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A First Edition offset lithograph, full-color print, of portrait of Madame Hébuterne (1918) by Amedeo Modigliani. Comes from a First … Read more A First Edition offset lithograph, full-color print, of portrait of Madame Hébuterne (1918) by Amedeo Modigliani. Comes from a First Limited Edition art folio published by Les Editions Du Chene in Paris, France in 1947. Signed in the print: Modigliani. Printed on one side. Numbered "XII." Hand tipped-in on a board of heavy paper. Information regarding the original artwork will be found in French, by lifting the piece. Excellent condition - minor age wear on the board, never framed.

Image: 6.25"L x 11"H

Jeanne Hébuterne (1898 – 1920) was a French artist, best known as the frequent subject and common-law wife of the artist. She was born in Meaux, Seine-et-Marne to a Roman Catholic family. Her father, Achille Casimir Hébuterne, worked at Le Bon Marché department store. A beautiful girl, she was introduced to the artistic community in Montparnasse by her brother André Hébuterne who wanted to become a painter. She met several of the then-starving artists and modelled for Tsuguharu Foujita. However, wanting to pursue a career in the arts, and with a talent for drawing, she chose to study at the Académie Colarossi. It was there in the spring of 1917 that Jeanne Hébuterne was introduced to Amedeo Modigliani by the sculptor Chana Orloff (1888–1968) who came with many other artists to take advantage of the Academy's live models. Jeanne began an affair with the charismatic artist, and the two fell deeply in love. She soon moved in with him, despite strong objection from her parents.

Described by the writer Charles-Albert Cingria (1883–1954) as gentle, shy, quiet, and delicate, Jeanne Hébuterne became a principal subject for Modigliani's art. In the spring of 1918, the couple moved to the warmer climate of Nice on the French Riviera where Modigliani's agent hoped he might raise his profile by selling some of his works to the wealthy art connoisseurs who wintered there. While they were in Nice, their daughter was born on 29 November. The following spring, they returned to Paris and Jeanne became pregnant again. By this time, Modigliani was suffering from tuberculous meningitis and his health, made worse by complications brought on by substance abuse, was deteriorating badly.

On 24 January 1920 Amedeo Modigliani died. Jeanne Hébuterne's family brought her to their home but Jeanne threw herself out of the fifth-floor apartment window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child. Her family, who blamed her demise on Modigliani, interred her in the Cimetière de Bagneux. Nearly ten years later, at the request of Modigliani's brother, Emanuele, the Hébuterne family agreed to have her remains transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery to rest beside Modigliani. Her epitaph reads: "Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice."

Their orphaned daughter, Jeanne Modigliani (1918–1984), was adopted by her father's sister in Florence, Italy. She grew up knowing virtually nothing of her parents and as an adult began researching their lives. In 1958, she wrote a biography of her father that was published in the English language in the United States as Modigliani: Man and Myth.

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (1884 - 1920) was an Italian artist of Jewish heritage, practicing both painting and sculpture, who pursued his career for the most part in France. Modigliani was born in Livorno (historically referred to in English as Leghorn), in Northwestern Italy and began his artistic studies in Italy before moving to Paris in 1906. Influenced by the artists in his circle of friends and associates, by a range of genres and art movements, and by primitive art, Modigliani's oeuvre was nonetheless unique and idiosyncratic. He died in Paris of tubercular meningitis, exacerbated by poverty, overworking, and an excessive use of alcohol and narcotics, at the age of 35.

On the subject of the editor: Editions du Chêne, Paris 1941, it is an occupied Paris which witnesses the emergence, 16, place Vendôme, of the Editions du Chêne. A risky bet given that its 21-year old founder was called Maurice Kahane, an atheist Jewish man who would then adopt the name of his mother, Girodias. The Chêne specialised itself by the edition of art books and literature. The Editions du Chêne would become a branch of the Hachette group in 1951. The edition of art books would then adopt pride of place. George Herscher takes over the Hachette house with enthusiasm in 1971. See less