Everything that happened was for both of us a prehistory of our future

March 26, 2015 7:21 AM

In 1910 and 1911, Anna Akhmatova and Amadeo Modigliani were in love. She was a then-unknown Russian poet who would return to Russia and struggle within the Soviet system before being widely acknowledged as one of Russia's great poets; he was a mercurial artist who would be dead within 10 years, but whose art would capture the imagination of future generations.

See Also:
Akhmatova on Modigliani (1964; later translated by Djemma Bider)
Richard Nathanson on Akhmatova’s influence on Modigliani’s art
His influence on her work is harder to pin down.
Browse Modigliani’s complete ouevre
A Selection of Akhmatova’s poetry

Akhmatova previously on MeFi

posted by julen (14 comments total)

languagehat will be here soon with an informed opinion
posted by y2karl at 7:52 AM on March 26, 2015

And, by rights, azazello should be here, too.
posted by y2karl at 7:56 AM on March 26, 2015

I came here to say that I'd just read about this in a comment thread somewhere
posted by infini at 8:04 AM on March 26, 2015

> languagehat will be here soon with an informed opinion

My opinion has always been that this was a deeply weird relationship that makes me feel queasily that I may be living in a surrealist alternate reality.

Also, was there supposed to be a link in "Akhmatova previously on MeFi"?
posted by languagehat at 8:33 AM on March 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yes - the Previously was supposed to (and did on the first 3 previews) link to: http://www.metafilter.com/119119/Anna-Akhmatova
posted by julen at 8:38 AM on March 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

While I’d read somewhere of the bare fact they’d been lovers, I knew no more than that, so this has been very interesting reading—especially Akhmatova’s 1964 piece.

I was curious about the fate of Modigliani and Jeanne Hébuterne’s daughter: it seems she lead rather an interesting life too.

Apparently, Modigliani’s chaotic lifestyle is still having repercussions today. This NYT article from last year mentions frauds, forgeries, lawsuits and death-threats surrounding his legacy.
posted by misteraitch at 8:50 AM on March 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

I literally cannot believe Modigliani died at 36.
posted by phaedon at 9:15 AM on March 26, 2015

What interesting, passionate, pairs, persons, lifetimes, histories, aesthetic outputs. So fascinating how these individuals rise from history, and form landscape in the collective memory of nations. They stand as figurative monuments reassembling in time after the obdurate lassitude, or brute forces of the past, subside.
posted by Oyéah at 10:10 AM on March 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

The National Gallery of Art in DC has an odd little exhibit room open now, ostensibly on orientalism in early modernism, but featuring a lovely Modigliani that all of us with middle-class sentiments are embarrassed to linger before.
posted by PandaMomentum at 11:05 AM on March 26, 2015

Apparently, Modigliani’s chaotic lifestyle is still having repercussions today. This NYT article from last year mentions frauds, forgeries, lawsuits and death-threats surrounding his legacy.

This seems like a good moment to plug one of my favorite movies, The Moderns.
posted by charlie don't surf at 11:08 AM on March 26, 2015

My opinion has always been that this was a deeply weird relationship that makes me feel queasily that I may be living in a surrealist alternate reality.

You talkin' about him and her or me and you, buddy ? In the first case, I agree. In the second, Why, I oughta...

As for the surrealist alternate reality, you are a member here, are you not ? Nuff said, then.
posted by y2karl at 12:25 PM on March 26, 2015

I have a reproduction of Anna with a sticker on the back saying Art Institute of Chicago. Found it in a garage sale for $5 in rural Pennsylvania. Must be more than 15 years now. I've always liked his style and this has been fascinating reading, thanks julen.
posted by infini at 4:47 PM on March 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

That is a big portrait, mentioned above! 55 inches by 33, a monument to love, to a poet.
posted by Oyéah at 6:03 PM on March 26, 2015

My version is quite small actually, maybe 1/10th that. The frame's bigger than the painting
posted by infini at 2:27 AM on March 27, 2015