Amedeo Modigliani was a dirty hipster who thought Picasso should dress better. 

Modigliani grew up along the coast of Livorno, Italy and is said to be a descendant of the 17^th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza on his mother’s side.

His parents came from a fairly wealthy background. His mother, Eugénie Garsin, and her family ran a multi-national credit agency and his father, Flaminio’s family were savvy business investors in addition to running a mining and logging empire. No fortune is ever guaranteed and the Modigliani’s unfortunately lost most of theirs when the economy took a turn for the worse.

Modigliani was born during this dark time and was instrumental in preventing the absolute financial ruin of his family. An ancient law states that creditors can’t seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. The feds arrived just as Eugénie went into labor and the family piled their most valued items on her bed.

His mother did as mothers do and made the best out of a bad situation using her many contacts to establish a rather successful school and reversing their bad luck.

Modigliani and his mother were exceptionally close. She homeschooled him until he was ten and cared for him through two bouts of pleurisy, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis. They even took a trip through southern Italy no doubt influencing his art studies. Amedeo was CLEARLY his mother’s favorite because she also took him on a separate trip to Florence because he asked to during a fever induced delirium.

Eugénie enrolled her son with the local master painter and he almost immediately rebelled. He tried all different styles like a dutiful student, but ultimately picked the least popular palette and style of the time. He did however, have a certain proclivity for nudes, an attractive option for a teenage boy. He was also easily distracted by a household maid spending most of his time seducing her. 

Modigliani moved to Venice to study nude portraiture, though he was more frequently found studying the finer aspects of hashish smoking and radical philosophers.

He next moved to Paris and attempted to downplay his family’s wealth while also being a judgey-mcjudgerson towards actually poor artists who couldn’t afford appropriate attire. When Modigliani first met Pablo Picasso, who was dressed in workmen’s clothes, he said that even though the man was a genius that did not excuse his uncouth appearance.

Paris, while a productive time for his new work, was not so great for Modigliani’s mental or physical well-being. He quickly delved deeper into drugs and alcohol and his snobbish views on attire took a complete 180. He even destroyed his older work saying they were ‘Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois.’

Modigliani’s old respiratory issues returned and he masked his tuberculosis with more drugs and drinking obviously exacerbating the issue. He kept his illness hidden from friends as best he could, but how they didn’t notice something was wrong would be impressive especially since he would sometimes get so drunk he would run around naked.

In 1917, at the age of 33, he met the 19-year-old Jeanne Hébuterne. Their first child was born a year later. Jeanne was pregnant with their second child when Modigliani died of tubercular meningitis. Jeanne committed suicide the day after by jumping out of a window killing herself and their unborn child. They are now buried together in the Pére Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.