Modigliani was born into a Jewish family of merchants.

As a child, he suffered
from pleurisy and typhus, which prevented him from receiving an ordinary education. In
1898 he began to study painting. After a brief stay in Florence in 1902, he continued his
artistic studies in Venice, remaining there until the winter of 1906, when he left for Paris.
His early admiration for Italian Renaissance painting was to last throughout his life.
In Paris Modigliani became interested in the post-Impressionist paintings of Paul
Cézanne. His initial important contacts were with the poets and with the artist Pablo
Picasso, and with Paul Alexandre, a friend of many avant-garde artists and the first to
become interested in Modigliani and to buy his works.
In 1909 Modigliani met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, on whose
advice he seriously studied African sculpture. In 1912 he exhibited at the Salon
d’Automne eight stone heads whose elongated and simplified forms reflect the influence
of African sculpture. Modigliani returned to painting about 1915, but his experience as a
sculptor influenced his painting style. The characteristics of Modigliani’s sculptured
heads—long necks and noses, simplified features, and long oval faces—became typical
of his paintings. He reduced and almost eliminated the use of gradations of light and
shadow. The World War I increased the difficulties of Modigliani’s life. Some of his
other friends were at the front; his paintings did not sell; and his health was going to
worse because of his poverty. He painted his friends but he also portrayed unknown
people, including models, servants, and girls from the neighborhood. In 1917 he began
painting a series of about 30 large female nudes that, with their warm, colors are among
his best works. In December of that year Berthe Weill organized a solo show for him in
her gallery, but the police judged the nudes indecent and had them removed.
In 1917 Modigliani began a love affair with the young
painter Jeanne Hébuterne, with whom he went to live on the Côte d’Azur. Their daughter,
Jeanne, was born in November 1918. The climate of the Mediterranean did not restore
the artist’s health. After returning to Paris in May 1919, he became ill in January 1920,
and 10 days later he died of tubercular. The next day Hébuterne killed herself and their
unborn child by jumping from a window.
Fame came after his death. For decades critical
evaluations of Modigliani’s work were overshadowed by the dramatic story of his tragic
life, but he is now acknowledged as one of the most significant and original artists of his
time.