Burning Fast

Modigliani was dead by 1920, just fourteen years after reaching Paris — years of relentless work while battling tuberculosis, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Two days after his death, his companion Jeanne Hébuterne, eight months pregnant, threw herself from a window.

His nudes were direct, unidealized, and confrontational — bodies presented plainly, without the soft mythological excuses that made nudity acceptable in the salons. That bluntness was exactly what made them feel scandalous to 1917 Paris, and it is the reason his work still feels modern today.