Girl with Pigtails

Black, beautiful hair and a well-defined, handsome face. Pursued beauty, had a dream of success but was never rewarded. Lived a destructive life of alcohol and drugs. Jeanne Hébuterne, his mistress, killed herself two days after he died. The life of Amedeo Modigliani is full of the decadent images we have of artists. Despite his destructive lifestyle, however, his works are filled with a tranquility which resembles prayer.
It is thought that Modigliani drew this Girl with Pigtails approximately one year before he passed away, when he moved to South France in order to escape the chaos of Paris during World War I. During this period, he became a father when he and his mistress, Jeanne, had a daughter. Probably because of the joy of fatherhood, he painted many paintings of children during this period, and this painting is counted as one of his major works. This painter, who had always been proud of Italian traditions and usually gave a priority to "form, let his honest emotions be revealed on his canvas Without asking or appealing for anything, this girl simply stares at us with clear eyes, and these eyes silently convey the painter's feeling to us, having led such an unrewarded life, he could not help pursuing tenderness and love.
(Source: Selected Works from the Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum, 1998, p. 17.)