Modigliani, the Secret of Eyes in His Portraits

By Seungyong Chang

President, Modigliani Institute Korea/Art Collage JANG

Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who was born on July 12, 1884 in Livorno, Italy. From 1898 to 1900, he received an art education from Guglielmo Micheli, who was then the best painting master in Livorno. In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris, where was the center of avant-garde art at the time, and settled in Montmartre, and then Montparnasse in 1909. Modigliani, who originally dreamed of being a sculptor rather than a painter, was devoted to sculpture when he was introduced to sculptor Constantin Brâncuși by Paul Guillaume.

In 1914, however, due to the health problems, he abandoned sculpting and focused on painting again.

In 1917, he met his last lover Jeanne Hébuterne. In 1919, Modigliani's health deteriorated rapidly, and eventually he was dead at the Charity Hospital in Paris on January 24, 1920.

Like this, Modigliani lived a short life of 36 years, but his established painting style had a great influence on the history of modern art.

Modigliani's own definitive style can be characterized by a long neck, an elongated body, two asymmetrical almond-shaped eyes, and eyes with no pupils. But this unique style was the result of a lot of experimentation and effort throughout most of his life.

The biggest turning point of his artistic view in Modigliani's life was his migration to Paris. This migration gave Modigliani an opportunity for dramatic change in his art world and style as well as his human aspect.

In other words, most of the paintings before Modigliani came to Paris were standard paintings reflecting classical art, but after moving to Paris he was influenced by many factors such as Paul Cézanne, African art, various art movements that existed in Paris at the time and many avant-garde artists involved in the art movements.

Therefore, such artistic diversity of Paris has caused great confusion in his artistic view that Modigliani had before coming to Paris, and in order to get out of this confusion, he has been obsessed with making his own established style as soon as possible.

If we look at the transition process of Modigliani’s art style in three stages, we can classify it as period based on classical art before moving to Paris, period transitioning from classical art to his own established style, and period based on his own established style.

In this article, I focused on analyzing the eyes’ forms he painted among the Modigliani’s unique art styles mentioned above.

Modigliani's eye styles are classified as both eyes are empty without pupils, one eye has a pupil but the other eye is empty, one eye has a pupil but the other eye is black, both eyes have pupils and both eyes are black.

The various styles of eyes painted by Modigliani depend on his painting style, type of model, intimacy with the model, Modigliani's emotional state or reality situation when he was drawing, the occupation or social status of the model, the possibility and the degree of the grasp of model’s character or personality through the model’s eyes.

Firstly, I analyzed the changes in the eye styles over time.

Most of his works before 1906, when Modigliani moved to Paris, reflected the traces of classical art that he studied since he was a child, and the eyes in his paintings are normally drawn. After moving to Paris in 1906, however, the eyes in his paintings are beginning to deviate from the normal eyes, and since then, paintings with black eyes and blurred eyes gradually appeared. From 1908, the paintings with black eyes are increased, and from 1910 after he started sculpting in 1909, the paintings of sculptural feeling with black eyes are increased. From 1912, the empty eyes with no pupils also appear in many paintings of sculptural feeling. In 1915, the paintings with an elongated neck or African sculptural feeling are increased and the paintings with a pupil in only one eye are appearing.

After meeting Jeanne Hébuterne in 1917, the paintings emphasizing his own style, such as an elongated neck or body, and empty eyes with no pupils, are more and more increased.

In addition to the analysis based on time, I tried to analyze when and where the various eye styles were applied. However, I would like to say that there are exceptions to my interpretation.

First, for drawing a number of series on a specific model, since Modigliani applied various eye styles, a specific eye style is not a characteristic of the specific model.

Second, for the paintings of sculptural feeling, he drew the eyes black, or empty with no pupils, and for caryatids, he drew the eyes empty with no pupils.

Third, for close friends who were poor, among his acquaintances, Modigliani portrayed the eyes more sympathetically, and for the model having an ambiguous character, he blurred the eyes, or pupils even though he drew the eyes.

Fourth, empty eyes without pupils can be interpreted as a view aspect of Modigliani looking at the model, and, on the contrary, the eyes that are black can be interpreted as a view aspect of the model looking at Modigliani.

Fifth, if there is a pupil in one eye and the other eye is empty, as in the portrait of Leopold Survage, it suggests Modigliani’s desire for the model to see the world with one eye, and to reflect on himself with the other eye.

Sixth, if one eye has a pupil and the other eye is black, it seems that the model looks at the world with one eye, but looks at Modigliani with the other eye with pity or compassion.

Seventh, in case of drawing normal eyes, it suggests that Modigliani can clearly identify and express the character of the model through the model’s eyes, and then he expressed his unique style as an elongated neck instead.

Eighth, when Modigliani drew both eyes empty, it seems that he had trouble grasping the character of the model through the model’s eyes, or he had trouble expressing the model’s character because Modigliani thought the model has too many characters. The color of the empty eyes for this case usually matches with the background color as if we see the background through the empty eyes.

Ninth, if he draws the model’s both eyes black, it seems when Modigliani thought the model has a strong sympathy for him, rather than Modigliani analyzes the character of the model.

(Originally Published: UN1K ART MAGAZINE, Paris, France)