Jeanne's Plunge

Modiglianni's Muse, oil on masonite, 13.5" x 27.5", Steven Rhude


A lot of artists meet their soul mates in art college. Some unions last, while others disintegrate quickly. Jeanne Hébuterne  had a talent for drawing, and chose to study at the Académie Colarossi. It was there in the spring of 1917 that she was introduced to Amedeo Modigliani. Three years later, while pregnant, she pitched herself out of an apartment window to her death.

"The last drawing Jeanne made in the 40 hours or so that passed from the moment of Amedeo’s death to that of her own shows her lying dead, with a stiletto in her hand, on the bed where she used to sit for Modi." [1] 

An account: On 24 January 1920 Amedeo Modigliani died. Jeanne Hébuterne's family brought her to their home but Jeanne threw herself out of the fifth-floor apartment window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child. Her family, who blamed her demise on Modigliani, interred her in the Cimetière de Bagneux. Nearly ten years later, the Hébuterne family finally relented and allowed her remains to be transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery to rest beside Modigliani. Her epitaph reads: "Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice." [2]

[1] http://modernartconsulting.ru/en/2013/03/jeanne-hebuterne/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_H%C3%A9buterne

https://www.artsy.net/artist/amedeo-modigliani 
Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS

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