Woman With a Fan: A Painting by Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) was an Italian sculptor and painter who lived in Paris for much of his working life and always struggled to earn a living. He died young, as the result of over-indulgence in drink and drugs. During the last five years of his life he abandoned sculpture for painting, partly because he could not afford the raw materials but also because the outbreak of the First World War led to a dearth of commissions. For a man in poor health, painting portraits was also less arduous. His portraits were mainly of women, and “Woman with a Fan” (“La femme a l’eventail”), painted in 1919, is a good example of his highly distinctive style. All the women he portrayed share certain characteristics, but they can also be recognised as individuals. He portrayed the woman he saw before him, but he also expressed a concept of womanhood that went beyond the subject in the studio. The “Woman with a Fan” is a Polish woman named Lunia Czechowska, whom Modigliani painted several times. She was a friend of Leopold Zborowski, a poet turned art dealer, who took Modigliani and several other struggling artists under his wing and did his best to promote and sell their work. Modigliani was able to use Zborowski’s house as his studio, and Lunia was a willing and available model. <a href="https://medium.com/the-worlds-great-art/woman-with-a-fan-a-painting-by-amedeo-modigliani-eab1a548148e">Visit Now</a>