Jeanne Hébuterne

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Jeanne Hébuterne

Jeanne Hébuterne (April 6, 1898 – January 25, 1920) was a French artist, best known as the frequent subject and common-law wife of the artist Amedeo Modigliani.

Born in Paris to a Roman Catholic family, her father, Achille 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 modeled 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 soon 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 deeply Catholic parents.

Hébuterne by Modigliani

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 fall 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 in Nice, a daughter was born on November 29th. 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 January 24, 1920 Amedeo Modigliani died. Jeanne Hébuterne's family brought her to their home but the totally distraught girl 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, the Hébuterne family finally relented and allowed her remains to be transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery to rest beside Modigliani.

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.

It took more than thirty years before an art scholar convinced the Hébuterne heirs to allow public access to Jeanne Hébuterne's artwork. In October of 2000, her works were featured at a major Modigliani exhibition in Venice, Italy by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.