$25 each, proceeds benefit Livermore Valley Opera
16" x 12"
Carolyn Lord created the image for Livermore Valley Opera’s 2007 “La Boheme” poster, and was inspired by the imagery of Italian artist, Amedeo Modigliani, (1884-1920)
Amedeo Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy to Shephardic Jewish parents. His family supported his classical education and his interests in philosophy, and the arts. He was an art student in Florence and Venice before he set his sights on Paris. Fueled by the ideals of Nietzsche, he “ thought that “life should be fully lived, without useless sacrifice, without concern for obstacles, but with definite dutiful intent, and sometimes even pain, in order to ‘save one’s own dream’ “. Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” had premiered 10 years earlier, in 1896. Undoubtedly, Modigliani was familiar with the opera with its Italian libretto, set in an artistic, bohemian neighborhood in Paris.
When he first arrived in Paris in 1906, Modigliani was 22 years old and dressed in “brown corduroys, scarlet scarf, and large black hat a la Boheme-he still looked like a bourgeois playboy in disguise.” Within one year he had completely transformed himself into a true Bohemian. He painted, sculpted, suffered poverty, and the ill health of tuberculosis acerbated by smoking, alcohol, and drug addictions. Modigliani had a 2 year love affair with the English poetess Beatrice Hastings. Then he fell in love with artist Jeanne Hebuterne. Three years later, Modigliani died in January 1920 at 35 years of age. The next day, Jeanne, pregnant with their second child, committed suicide.
Bibliography; “Modigliani”, Alfred Werner, Abrams, NY