Pinacotheque Museum

Friday April 6

I FINALLY found Utrillo, Valadon and Modigliani....all in one place.  You remember me going on and on about them in past posts.  It's so weird....there was maybe one....if that....Modigliani, or Utrillo  in either d'Orsay or Pompideau.  But I found them in an exhibit at a place I'd never heard of...Pinacotheque de Paris.  It's fairly new in the world of art museums.  Founded in 2007 as a private museum - one of the few in Paris.   It had EXACTLY what I was looking for.  They were quite strict about taking photos…but here, at least is a photo of the huge advertisement, which was on the street, for the exhibit.

  

All the paintings in the exhibit were from the private collection of Jonas Netter.  He was an art dealer at the time of all the painters in the exhibit and he had the foresight to buy up much of their work.  

When I was about 19 or 20, living in San Francisco,  I had a couple of people tell me I looked like  paintings by Modigliani.  Remember...I was only 20...  So that was what started my interest in this artist.  Many of his painting were of the same woman....the love of his life and the mother of his daughter.  He died at the age of 36 of tuberculosis and alcoholism.  It was very tragic, because his lover, the day after his death, killed herself and consequently the child she was carrying.  They are buried together in the same grave.

In addition to the one above, here are a couple of other paintings of her from Google Images.

Here is a picture of Modigliani...oh those Italians....so handsome....

In addition to Utrillo and Valadon and many other painters of the time, there were paintings by an artist named Chaim Soutine.  I had heard of him before, but was not really familiar with his work.  It is very strange.  I thought, when I looked at his painting, he must have been mad.  But when I looked him up on the internet and read about his life....there was no mention of madness.  He was quite a successful artist in his lifetime.  

This first Soutine painting is quite famous.  I know I have seen it many times.  The second one shows the kind of weirdness that I am referring to....and it's a mild example.  If you really want to see how weird some of it is.....search Soutine on Google Images and you'll see what I mean.

He as an interesting looking guy.  He was Russian and apparently extremely shy.  Here is a portrait of him done by Modigliani.