Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
81.3 × 54.3 cm (32 × 21 3/8 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Modern Art
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
27987
Art Historical Context
Amedeo Modigliani’s 1916 oil painting *Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz* captures the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz and his wife in a moment of quiet intimacy. Created during World War I in Paris, the work reflects the close-knit artistic community that sustained many émigré creators at the time. Modigliani, working in the heart of the modern art scene, often painted friends and fellow artists, turning private relationships into enduring portraits. The painting exemplifies Modigliani’s distinctive modernist approach, with its simplified forms and elegant lines that emphasize the sitters’ personalities...
About the Artist
Amedeo Modigliani · 1884–1920
Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor whose elegant, elongated figures and portraits rank among the most instantly recognizable images in modern art. Born in Livorno, Tuscany, to a Sephardic Jewish family, he studied at the academies of Florence and Venice before moving permanently to Paris in 1906, where he immersed himself in the bohemian artistic milieu of Montmartre...