Drawing

April 1909

Montparnasse, Brâncuși and sculpture

In April 1909 Modigliani moves into a studio in Montparnasse and meets the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, who will have an enormous influence on him. For a time he prefers sculpture to painting; it was even said that he stole stone blocks and wooden railway sleepers for his sculptures from the construction sites of the metro.

spring 1910 – August 1911

The affair with Anna Akhmatova

In the spring of 1910 Modigliani meets the young Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, five years his junior; their passionate infatuation lasts until August 1911, after which they never meet again. Akhmatova takes 16 portraits of herself back to Russia.

1911

The “Pillars of Tenderness” and the plan for a “Temple of Beauty”

In 1911 Modigliani exhibits stone sculpted heads, his “pillars of tenderness”, in the studio of the Portuguese artist Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. It is then that he conceives the idea of a “Temple of Beauty”, for which he develops the caryatid motif.

1912

Sculpted heads at the Salon d’Automne

In 1912 Modigliani shows seven sculpted heads at the Salon d’Automne, and some of them are even bought. There he meets the sculptors Jacob Epstein and Jacques Lipchitz.

by 1914

Gives up sculpture for painting

By 1914 Modigliani abandons sculpting and focuses solely on painting, a move precipitated by the difficulty of acquiring sculptural materials once the war breaks out, and by his physical debilitation.

June 1914

Beatrice Hastings

Modigliani meets the talented and eccentric Englishwoman Beatrice Hastings, a poet and columnist for The New Age, who becomes his companion, muse and favourite model: he devotes 14 portraits to her. The relationship lasts about two years.