![chagalov:
Paul Guillaume (left) and Modigliani (center), Nice or Paris, ca 1917 -nd [+]
In an article written some months after Modigliani’s death in 1920, Paul Guillaume said: “Because he was very poor and got drunk whenever he could, (Modigliani) was despised for a long time,” Guillaume wrote, “even among artists, where certain forms of prejudice are more prevalent than is generally believed … He was shy and refined—a gentleman. But his clothes did not reflect this, and if someone happened to offer him charity, he would become terribly annoyed.” Who could forget his “strange habit of dressing like a beggar” that nevertheless “gave him a certain elegance, a distinction—nobility in the style of Milord d’Arsouille that was astonishing and sometimes frightening. One only had to hear him pompously reciting Dante in front of the Rotonde, after brasseries closed, deaf to the insults of the waiters, indifferent to the rain that soaked him to the bone.”Excerpted from Meryle Secrest, “Modigliani: A Life” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011)
photo and text from Art & Antiques](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljwxolvq0s1qcl8ymo1_1280.jpg)
Paul Guillaume (left) and Modigliani (center), Nice or Paris, ca 1917 -nd [+]
In an article written some months after Modigliani’s death in 1920, Paul Guillaume said:
“Because he was very poor and got drunk whenever he could, (Modigliani) was despised for a long time,” Guillaume wrote, “even among artists, where certain forms of prejudice are more prevalent than is generally believed … He was shy and refined—a gentleman. But his clothes did not reflect this, and if someone happened to offer him charity, he would become terribly annoyed.” Who could forget his “strange habit of dressing like a beggar” that nevertheless “gave him a certain elegance, a distinction—nobility in the style of Milord d’Arsouille that was astonishing and sometimes frightening. One only had to hear him pompously reciting Dante in front of the Rotonde, after brasseries closed, deaf to the insults of the waiters, indifferent to the rain that soaked him to the bone.”
Excerpted from Meryle Secrest, “Modigliani: A Life” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011)photo and text from Art & Antiques
