Modi’s Girl
Watercolour 22″ x 30″
Copyright 2008 Jean Burman
I am writing this in the early hours of the morning from the Q1 tower on the Gold Coast. The sun gets up so early here as summer approaches… situated as it is near the eastern seabord’s most easterly point. So it’s impossible to sleep past 5.30am. By summer the sun will rise an hour earlier even than that. I would definitely need black out blinds if I should ever live here!
Last week was a busy one for me. The builders moved in to do some repairs on the house before the painters come sometime next week. Zoned out on Mozart and in and out between the hammering and crashing however… I was able to get some painting done. Sadly no writing though… but hey… who can have it all? LOL
Modi’s Girl was born out of a wish (on my part) to give Jeanne Hebuterne… Modigliani’s sweet wife and muse… the eyes Modigliani had omitted in his famous portrait “Jeanne Hebuterne avec un grand chapeau”.
A little arrogant perhaps… but heartfelt nonetheless. And I’m pleased I did it. I think Jeanne wouldn’t mind so much… and I feel now as though I know her (even if only just a little).
Jeanne was an artist in her own right who lived and painted in the shadow of Modigliani’s greatness. How great she herself may have ultimately become will never be known for Jeanne threw herself from an upstairs window… taking her life and the life of their unborn child… one day after Modigliani’s untimely death in 1920 from tuberculosis and substance abuse.
She died for love.
That kind of thing doesn’t happen all that often any more. Passion it would seem… is passe. Replacing it… a kind of generalised emotional malaise in the modern way of life.
I wanted to recapture some of the magic of that past… albeit in my own way… adding my own contemporary spin! Whether I was successful or not I shall leave to the critics whom I feel sure will be swift to have me answer for it! (grin)
Either way… it was fun… and I’m glad I did it. 
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I love it, Jean! Thanks for visiting my blog recently. It’s good to see you painting again.
To have a passion great enough to die for it, I agree is not a modern phenomenon – we would now be diagnosed with depression and drugged up! And ofcourse as you know Jean, I do not consider either to be an answer (both depict the hopelessness of the situation). What a shame Jeanne could not channel her grief through her art or her unborn child – for her, the pain was too great and the end results would never have been enough to subdue the loss of her greatest love. Without love the world must seem an empty and hostile place.
Hey thanks Vernita!
I’m pretty much always painting just not always “showing”… at least not here on the blog where the cartoons tend to hog the limelight! This one’s a special project of the heart I couldn’t help but share! I’m currently working toward a new blog/website format which will better feature both disciplines (paintings and cartoons) in dedicated galleries. I can’t wait to get it better sorted. LOL I hope your storm crisis is at an end and you are now well and truly into the clean up phase. It takes a while though doesn’t it… to put things right?
Yes Jools… it was a desperate solution for Jeanne that’s for sure. Can’t say I would advocate such a drastic response either. In her mind though she must have felt she had no other choice… the pain was too terrible. Worse still was she left behind her other child (a daughter) who was then reared by her grandparents. It’s a rather compelling story!
I love the eyes in your painting. I agree it is a compelling story, thanks for sharing it.
Thanks Joh!
The digital image doesn’t really do this painting justice (even if I do say so myself) It’s a bit too small to get the full impact of her eyes… and there are subtle colours and light-filled nuances throughout that are rather beautiful. I did wonder at one point if Jeanne was looking over my shoulder with this one… it just seemed to flow from start to finish. I am rather happy with it… and that’s unusual for me! LOL
I should also mention too ( for anyone interested) that I kept the alignment of the eyes the same as Modigliani had placed them. They were intentionally skew whiff in the original… and blank. So I kept the skew whiff and gave them life. She feels like a person to me now… rather than just a shell. But maybe that’s just me. (grin)
I like it a lot, Jean, and applaud your “take” on a famliar, almost iconic image. In what was more a spirit of humor I painted Caravaggio’s “Bacchus” with a partly eaten pizza on the table in front of him. You were a lot kinder to Modligliani than I was to Caravaggio.
(((chuckles)) Caravaggio and Modigliani may well be rolling over in their graves together then John? Not “together” together of course (!!) but just at the same time if you know what I mean! (grin)
Thanks for stopping by John. I’m pleased you liked it.
Nice work Jean! Tomorrow I pick up my 2009 calendars ,spires and towers, from Italy,the Baltic, Paris, Croatia, Chicago and Pittsburgh. My daughter in law wanted a weekly format so I did trees and wildflowers for 2007. birds for 2008. God knows what I will do for 2010 it is hard to come up with 53 related images. I could probably do lighthouses. I will be having a show in October in Lansing and maybe at my college in Chicago after that.
Hey that’s cool Roger! Will your 2009 calendars be available again at the Cafe? You’ve certainly covered some miles in your travels. It must be great to see all the amazing places you’ve been to and painted… laid out in a weekly format. I agree… 53 images is a lot to come up with! With all the action in the financial markets this past week… you might want to do banks and institutions that are no longer with us?! (Okay j-u-s-t kidding! grin)
Hope your October Show goes really well… and that you will post up some pics for us to see? Thanks for stopping by Roger… it’s always good to hear from you.