Chapter 45 II Departure from Montparnasse to join the war (2) Painters and art dealers

After all, great painters create great art dealers. Danielle-Henri Carnville You can not have it both ways.Whoever goes out to hunt loses his position.Carnville, a German citizen, had all his property - painting collection - seized, forced to immigrate to Switzerland, and finally completely lost the ability to support his painter friends.Since then, the number one dealership he had long occupied has been vacant.Not long after, someone took over from him and took that chair. Whoever comes the fastest, it belongs to.The winner is Leonce Rosenberg.Taking advice from André Le Vere and Max Jacobs, Rosenberg purchased paintings by Gris, Braque, Loesche and Picasso.When he knew little about the art dealer business, he somehow became a Cubist art dealer.A few years after the First World War, he suggested to Miró that he cut up his painting "The Farm" and sold it to some of his customers.Because he lived in poverty, he still lived in an apartment... But in the end, Hemingway won the final victory over other amateur art dealers, firmly occupying a dominant position, and sitting on the top spot among art dealers...

Leonce Rosenberg paid very cheaply for paintings, but sometimes higher than Carnville.However, since there is no one else in this family, most painters can only resign themselves to their fate and swallow their anger.It is also because, as Max Jacobs recorded, because "if they are not sold to him, a large number of painters may be forced to work as drivers or workers in factories". [Excerpt from Max Jacob's letter to Jacques Doucet, "Letters and Correspondence"] Among the painters under Leonce Rosenberg, Picasso was the only one with keen judgment who was unwilling to bow to his ears. He finally left Leonce Rosenberg and sold his works to the former brother Paul Rosen berg.Paul Rosenberg became Picasso's main dealer between the wars.

Modigliani followed Picasso's example and also changed his door.His dealer of choice was Paul Guillaume and later Leopold Sporowski.This man was an important defender of modern art and one of the publishers of the catalogs of exhibits at modern art exhibitions.He was Polish and had studied at the Sorbonne in Paris at the outbreak of World War I.His dignified appearance and decent attire belied his substantive poverty.He had absolutely no hope of getting anything his customers had, but he had a heart of gold.When Leopold Sporowski met Amdo Modigliani for the first time, he said to him: "You are equivalent to two Picasso!"

"How? Can you prove it?" "There should be talks about that." This scene took place during an exhibition of poetry and painting.Kisling is responsible for introducing the exhibited works. Amdo Modigliani and his future art dealer walked towards the Petit Napolitan bar.Modigliani had just done two painting models and earned two banknotes.He put one of them in the hat of the Italian-Chilean painter Ortiz Zarate, who organized a traveling exhibition of works by war-damaged artists. The two of them sat down, and very rationally ordered two cups of coffee with cream.They asked for another glass and gave it to a painter who belonged to their class.The man was wearing a worn overcoat, a poor shirt, bad shoes, and a coughing and hoarse voice.So Amdo secretly threw the second banknote, the last one, on the ground.

Then he stooped to pick up the note from the ground, and shook it over the table, shouting: "Look here! Ten francs!" He put the note in front of the painter and said, "This is yours, it's under your chair." The painter wanted to share with him, but the Italian painter (Amdo Modigliani) yelled: "No need at all, I just made a lot of money!" Thus, Modigliani's second income as a model was wasted for another person's happiness. The painter invited Modigliani to drink a cup of coffee and left. Sporowski is a very eccentric young man.Well-dressed, tailored clothes, trimmed beard, and the same accent as Soutine, very eager to cooperate with the Italian painter Amdo Modigliani... He proposed to Modigliani to provide him with models and everything Necessary material materials, pay him another 15 francs a day.

Fifteen francs was only a pitiful charity for Picasso, but it was a considerable windfall for Modigliani... The Italian (Amdo Modigliani) stares at Spoorowski in embarrassment, thinking that his bones are worth only a glass of schnapps, while the art dealer proposes a job he can't even dream of. Such a wonderful godsend (because he was paid 15 francs a day).He could see that the man was not rich either: with a flick of his tie, it was easy to see that a button was missing, a shirt was patched, a chest was flattened, and it was immediately clear that this man was at odds with himself. Same starvation.And he proposed to pay himself 15 francs a day, how is this possible!

"I have some friends who are very gifted," said the Livorno native. He spoke of Soutine, whom the artist interrupted with a gesture when he was about to list the needy among his comrades. "I must explain to you frankly..." He said he really had nothing, was studying French literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, and was stranded in France by the outbreak of the First World War.Forced by circumstances, he became a dealer in art, books and sculpture.He knows himself, understands that he is good at words, has a gift and ability to negotiate.He, Amdo Modigliani, did not and still does not have this talent.When he read the works of "Poetry and Prose" magazine, he discovered the talent of Amdo Modigliani, and he was willing to contribute everything to make him develop this talent better, and was willing to protect him.

Agree or disagree? Amdo leaned his whole body on the table in the tavern, staring straight at an American girl who was drinking coffee alone on the adjacent table.She is drawing eyebrows.Modigliani may be recalling a meeting he had with another dealer: before signing the contract with Paul Guillaume.The guy was negotiating a contract with him for a batch of paintings, and the dealer was offering low, low, low, lower and lower prices.When Modigliani estimated that the price offered by the other party had reached the bottom, he snatched the paintings, threaded a rope through the hole, went straight to the bathroom, and hung the paintings on the water tank of the toilet.Then, he returned to the negotiating table and said to the art dealer: "I gave you all, you can use them to wipe your ass."

Amdo Modigliani tore the page full of words just now from the paper clip and tore it to pieces... "Agree or disagree?" Leopold Sporowski asked him again. Modigliani handed his portrait to the American girl.She snatched the painting and looked at it carefully.She is fascinated, delighted, happy, satisfied, intoxicated, grateful and happy.When her face showed ecstasy, Modigliani said: "Please serve three glasses of stout!" The waiter immediately brought three glasses of stout. "Please sign your name." The American girl demanded. “Not all saints are angels,” Leopold Sporowski pointed out.

Modigliani took the painting handed by the girl and said: "Why do you have to sign it?" "Worth, one day in the future, you may become a celebrity!" The girl exclaimed. Modigliani wrote the ten letters that make up his family name with vigorous strokes on the diagonal of the entire portrait, and then handed the painting to the American girl.She caught the painting in ecstasy, looked at it carefully with a mixture of excitement, gratitude, and doubt on her face, and then suddenly tore it up with a frenzy. Modigliani turned to Sporowski, clinked his glass with the latter's, and said firmly, "I agree."

Art dealer Sporowski goes out every day to compete for galleries.Modigliani never asked him to settle the bill, but he often asked him for an advance payment to cover the expenses of eating, drinking and sending flowers... Sporowski gave as much as he could, and when he was really unable to pay him, he pawned his wife Jewelry, go to Luo Tongde to play poker, engage in abnormal transactions with other art dealers or borrow from other dealers.Sometimes, people saw him sitting at the table in Luo Tongde's tavern, eating nothing for two consecutive days. Max Jacobs and some other artists had hardly a better fate: Max Jacobs often peddled along tables with self-published works.Others habitually went to Luo Tongde to take a bath because they did not have their own bathroom.The art dealer Sporowski, among others, might have picked up a few buns as he passed the tavern counter.In a very tight situation, when he found that an amateur of paintings came to him, he held up Modigliani's works and sold them, often at a price of 1% of the price after five years. Sell ​​it off. Sporowski is completely loyal to Amdo, he supports him wholeheartedly, defends him, sacrifices everything for him, and can give him everything in order to make Amdo live better.For Amdo, he quit smoking, did not burn coal in winter, and did not even eat.The reason why he did this was, on the one hand, out of love for Amdo, and also because he admired Amdo very much.If it hadn't been for an article by Francis Calco published in a Geneva newspaper one day that sparked the enthusiasm of several Swiss collectors (they bought several of his nudes at a low price), except for Spoel Modigliani was not believed by anyone other than Rawski.In order to protect his painters, the art dealer has been working hard day after day unswervingly. Sporowski tried every means to find customers everywhere, even among the merchants on Wawan Street.In desperation, Modigliani negotiated business with them directly.Francis Calco told one thing: One day, his art dealer was in the south, and Amdo met the art dealer's wife, Onka.He asks her to be a model for his paintings because he has to sell two paintings to a hairdresser.She accepted his plea, on the condition that he must also paint a third painting for her.After all the paintings were finished, the third painting was still not dry, and Angka Sporowski decided to come back to pick it up the next day.But when she came to pick them up the next day, all three were gone: two were at the barber, and he had sold the third to a casual customer. Onka has done many painting models for Modigliani, as has Lugna, a friend of the couple.As long as he has even five francs in his hand, Modigliani will go to a professional model or buy essential materials such as brushes, paints and canvases, plus a bottle of wine. Amdo paints at his hotel accommodation before being delivered to his art dealer's home on Joseph-Bara Street.The conditions under which he worked were by no means the same as those imposed on him by Xie Long.Before the war, the latter always locked the painter in the cellar of his gallery in Poetty Street, only kept a bottle of wine on hand for him, and set him free after painting. Here at Sporowski, Modigliani came every afternoon.He finished a painting in a few hours.He never criticizes the models.After painting, he often eats kidney beans that Angka bought from a nearby small shop with his master, and then leaves his art dealer's house.Sometimes, he came back at night to ask for a few francs in advance.The art dealer and his wife turned off the lights upstairs and pretended to be asleep. Modigliani also took his friends to the house of the art dealer Sporowski, and Soutine was the first.He kept insisting on asking the art dealer to take care of his friend, but he was still unable to convince the Polish art dealer.Perhaps his wife Onka disagreed.Because Soutine's behavior made her uncomfortable, and she appreciated Modigliani very much, but she didn't like him being with Soutine.She kept blaming Modigliani for getting up every day when he was eating. Modigliani often comes with a young girl.From the spring of 1917 this girl replaced his former model.People called her "Cocoa Nut" because of her brown hair and fair skin.Her name is Jeanne Ebdelner (Figure 54). Jeanne Ebdelner attended classes in Modigliani's studio.She is very gentle, very shy, absent-minded, sentimental and elusive all day long, her clear green eyes are like a pool of clear spring water, her deep and beautiful eyes are warm and attractive, her slender and delicate figure is beautiful and moving.But she is always like a frightened little animal, always looking for a small shelter in the circle of big shots.Her parents, Eudoxie and Ashile Kazimir, were both devout Catholics and disciplined their daughter very strictly.They disagreed with their daughter's marriage to an Italian artist, Jewish, penniless and many years her senior.She was only 19 years old at the time, while Modigliani was 35 years old.However, the relationship between the two of them has developed to the point where they are inseparable, inseparable, and inseparable. Sporowski found an artist's workshop on Rue de la Grand Thatched Cottage, just across from the one Paul Gauguin had previously occupied.Unlike a businessman who opened a famous store in a luxurious location, he cared about his protected object in his own unique way. Later, some, notably Daniel-Henri Carnville, denounced Sporowski's lack of seriousness in choosing his subjects for conservation, and that the chosen painters were unreliable.However, all these accusations cannot conceal a basic fact, that is, the object he chose - Modigliani is indeed an out-and-out painter.Precisely because he correctly chose the object of protection, between 1916 and 1920, Sporowski collaborated with Modigliani to complete almost all the paintings they planned-a remarkable series of nudes.As fate would have it, twelve years after the death of the Italian painter, his dealer went with him.Sporowski died completely bankrupt, just as destitute as Modigliani when he died.On the morning of Modigliani's death, Jeanne Ebdelner moved back to her parents' house at No. 8 B Street Amjout.