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Jeanne HbuterneJeanne Hbuterne, born April 6, 1898 died January 26, 1920, was a French artist, best known as the frequent subject and common-law wife of the artist Amedeo Modigliani. Born in Paris, France to a Roman Catholic family, her father, Achille Hbuterne, worked at Le Bon March department store. A beautiful girl, she was introduced to the artistic community in Montparnasse by her brother Andr Hbuterne who wanted to become a painter. She met several of the then starving artists and modeled for Tsuguharu Foujita. However, wanting to pursue a career in the arts, and with a talent for drawing, she chose to study at the Acadmie Colarossi. It was there in the spring of 1917 that Jeanne Hbuterne was introduced to Amedeo Modigliani by the sculptor Chana Orloff (1888-1968) who came with many other artists to take advantage of the Academy's live models. Although Modigliani was fourteen years older than Hbuterne, he was a very handsome and, when sober, charming man. They began seeing each other immediately and fell deeply in love. By this time, Modigliani's reputation as an alcoholic and drug addict was well known and to the consternation of her family, the young Jeanne Hbuterne moved in with him. Described by the writer Charles-Albert Cingria (1883-1954) as gentle, shy, quiet, and delicate, Jeanne Hbuterne became a principal subject for Modiglianis art. In the fall of 1918, the couple moved to the warmer climate of Nice on the French Riviera where Modiglianis agent hoped he might raise his profile by selling some of his works to the wealthy art connoisseurs who wintered there. While in Nice, a daughter was born on November 29th. The following spring, they returned to Paris and Jeanne became pregnant again. By this time, Modigliani was suffering from tubercular meningitis and his health, made worse by complications brought on by substance abuse, was deteriorating badly. On January 24, 1920 Amedeo Modigliani died. Jeanne Hbuterne's family brought her to their home but the totally distraught woman threw herself out of the fifth-floor apartment window two days after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child. Her family, who blamed her demise on Modigliani, interred her in the Cimetire de Bagneux. Nearly ten years later, the Hbuterne family finally relented and allowed her remains to be transferred to Pre Lachaise Cemetery to rest beside Modigliani. Their orphaned daughter, Jeanne Modigliani (1918-1984), was adopted by her father's sister in Florence, Italy. She grew up knowing virtually nothing of her parents and as an adult began researching their lives. In 1958, she wrote a biography of her father that was published in the English language in the United States as . It took more than thirty years before an art scholar convinced the Hbuterne heirs to allow public access to Jeanne Hbuterne's artwork. In October of 2000, her works were featured at a major Modigliani exhibition in Venice, Italy by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Hbuterne, Jeanne Hbuterne, Jeanne Hbuterne, Jeanne Hbuterne, Jeanne
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