Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne with her Left Arm Behind Her Head is a painting created by Amedeo Modigliani in 1919. The painting depicts Jeanne, the artist’s frequent subject and common-law wife, less than fully dressed, but her white chemise suggests modesty and chastity. Modigliani’s portrayal of her shows his appreciation for Italian Renaissance painting, African sculpture, and the Cubist movement.
During their three-year relationship, Modigliani created over twenty portraits of Jeanne, who eventually committed suicide one day after his death. The painting is executed in an Expressionism style where Modigliani utilized ochres, chrome yellow, emerald green, Prussian blue vermilion lead white and chrome orange in his palette. Additionally, a pigment analysis revealed these colors.
The artwork is valued at $40 million at Sotheby’s auction and located in the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki Japan where it attracts art enthusiasts worldwide to study its brushstrokes firsthand alongside Jeane Hebuterne burial site next to Modigliani himself.
