AN UNPUBLISHED PORTRAIT OF CHAÏM SOUTINE BY JEANNE HÉBUTERNE, AN ENIGMATIC ARTIST WHO REMAINED IN THE SHADOWS OF HER HUSBAND AMEDEO MODIGLIANI HAS ARRIVED ON THE WALLS OF THE FAMM
◉ Lee Krasner’s Prophecy (1956) is back after its loan to the Musée national Picasso-Paris
◉ Laure d’Hauteville, founder of MENART Fair, and Naïla Kettaneh, director of the Galerie Tanit based in Beirut and Munich, will be speaking about women artists from the Middle East and North Africa on February 12 during the next edition of Heure FAMMM.
JEANNE HÉBUTERNE: CURSED ARTIST OR UNKNOWN TALENT?
On the morning of January 26, 1920, a silhouette leapt into the void on rue Amyot in Paris. Jeanne Hébuterne, 22, pregnant with her second child, took her own life, 24 hours after the death of her father, the great painter Amedeo Modigliani. This final act made her a tragic figure, but her talent remained unknown. Born in 1898 in Meaux, Jeanne was immersed in an artistic environment from childhood thanks to her painter brother. A student at the Académie Colarossi, she developed a style influenced by the Nabis and Maurice Denis. In 1917, she met Amedeo Modigliani, an artist already worn down by illness and alcohol. Jeanne, nicknamed "Coconut" because of her clear complexion and coppery hair, quickly became his muse and companion. Their intense relationship took them to Nice in 1918, where Modigliani hoped to alleviate his tuberculosis.*
It was there, under the Mediterranean light, that Jeanne gave birth to their daughter. While Modigliani tirelessly painted her face, Jeanne continued her own work in silence. But upon their return to Paris, poverty and illness caught up with the couple. On January 24, 1920, Modigliani died. Jeanne, locked away at her parents' house, fell into despair and threw herself from the fifth floor. Her rarely exhibited work, overshadowed by the legend of her companion, nevertheless revealed a singular talent whose vibrantly toned painting captured the psychological interiority of her models.
Chaïm Soutine, a painter of Belarusian origin, was one of Modigliani's close friends in Montparnasse in the 1910s. Exiled, haunted by poverty and anxiety, he shared the studio with him at 3, impasse Falguière. Jeanne Hébuterne, living in this circle, observes the same models, captures the same faces, but with a different look.*
In her portrait of Soutine (photo on the right of the text), which is currently on display in the first gallery of the FAMM, she seeks neither mysticism nor idealization. Where Modigliani enveloped him in an almost religious mystery, she shows him as tense, almost spectral. The palette oscillates between ochres and deep blues, emphasizing a worried face, as if frozen between presence and absence. It is an artist’s canvas, not a muse’s: Jeanne imposes herself through her own interpretation, capturing Soutine’s duality between creative genius and inner pain. *NB: Only the portrait of Chaïm Soutine opposite is on display at the FAMM,
LEE KRASNER’S PROPHECY RETURNS TO FAMM A WORK BETWEEN CHAOS, RESILIENCE AND RENEWAL
Back at FAMM after four months of exhibition at the Musée national Picasso-Paris, Prophecy (1956) is a key work in Lee Krasner’s career. Started in the summer of 1956, it was still on her easel when Krasner learned of the sudden death of Jackson Pollock in a car accident. Devastated, she interrupted her stay in Paris and returned to the United States. Associated with this pivotal moment, the canvas is distinguished by its fragmented forms that emerge from a dark background, evoking a dislocated body.
The material is dense, the energy contained, the tension palpable. Upon her return, Krasner named it Prophecy, and this work began the series of Umber Paintings (1959-1962), in which she delved into a more raw and introspective style of painting. Prophecy illustrates Krasner's expressive power at a decisive turning point in his career.
ROYAL ARTS VISIONS; JEANNE HÉBUTERNE: CURSED ARTIST OR UNKNOWN TALENT?