A portrait by Amedeo Modigliani of his lover Jeanne Hébuterne may fetch more than $40 million at Sotheby’s in London.The portrayal of the painter’s loyal muse, which has been hidden in a private collection since 1986, will be offered in Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening sale on June 21.The modern-art pioneer, known for his voluptuous nudes, painted topless pictures of his girlfriend, but “Jeanne Hébuterne (au foulard)” is a tender image that shows her clothed in a dress set off with a red scarf.This painting is the finest of its kind to come to the market in a decade, according to Helena Newman, global co-head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department. It has an estimate of in excess of £28 million.As ever, Modigliani translates the female form to flowing shapes, with the three-quarter portrait given sweeping draped arms, a face like his stone carvings and a swan-like neck. She has piercing blue eyes, in contrast to his more usual almond vacant stares.The portrait contrasts with the artist’s usual later bohemian works as he abused drugs and alcohol. He met art student Jeanne in 1917, and they became inseparable. Modigliani offered to marry her, despite her family’s objections. Three years later, a friend checked in on the couple and found Modigliani in bed delirious with tubercular meningitis, and clutching a tearful Jeanne. The painter died soon after, and Jeanne, 22, reputedly heavily pregnant, was taken to her parents’ home, where she committed suicide by leaping from an upstairs window.The sale also includes Pablo Picasso’s Cubist masterpiece of his lover Fernande Olivier, which has an unpublished estimate in excess of £30 million. There is a fascinating dialogue between the two portraits, said Thomas Bompard, head of the auction house’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sales, neither of which has been seen for decades: One is vibrant curves and colors, while the other is all straight lines and sharp angles.
↧