b. Livorno, 1884 - d. Paris, 1920 Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy, into a family of Sephardic Jews who had little money but a rich cultural life. When he arrived in Paris at the age of 22, he had had eight years of academic training behind him, and possessed a great respect for the old masters and a passionate interest in literature, especially poetry. He settled in Montmartre, entered the private Academy of Colorossi, and frequented gatherings of avant-garde artists and poets. Even though he is reported to have had high esteem for Matisse and Picasso, his art, according to scholars, never had any affinity to either the Fauves or the Cubists. Modigliani admired 14th century Italian art (especially the Siena School of painting), and was interested in primitive art in general and African art in particular. African art was an avant-garde craze at the time, and it is quite probable that Modigliani saw the exhibition of African art displayed at the Trocadero in 1906. In the autumn of 1907, Modigliani met a young physician, Dr. Paul Alexander, who bought most of his early paintings. The doctor invited him to work at the artists' colony he had established on rue de Delta. They soon became friends and shared their interest in literature and poetry. Modigliani's art may be considered a personal version of expressionism. The expressionistic aspects of his work were the thematic choice of profound, often painful aspects of human life, extensive use of sharp outlines, and masterly yet intentionally strident or dissonant color combinations. He developed a highly personal style of extremely elongated, simplified forms endowed with a sense of rhythmic vitality and linear grace. Modigliani died of tuberculosis aggravated by alcoholism and drug addiction in January 1920, at the age of 37. The art dealers, who are assumed to have kept the prices of Modigliani's painting low during his lifetime, began negotiating a new price level at his funeral.
