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Jeanne Modigliani, née Giovanna Hébuterne le 29 novembre 1918 à Nice et morte le 27 juillet 1984, est la fille du peintre de l'École de Paris Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) et de sa compagne Jeanne Hébuterne (1898-1920), également artiste-peintre. Le surlendemain de la mort d'Amedeo Modigliani, le 24 janvier 1920, sa jeune compagne Jeanne Hébuterne, alors enceinte de neuf mois, se suicide en se défenestrant. Leur fille Giovanna, âgée de quatorze mois et alors en nourrice, est recueillie et élevée à Livourne par sa grand-mère et sa tante paternelles, Eugénie Garsin-Modigliani et sa fille célibataire Margherita Modigliani.
Jeanne épouse l'économiste italien Mario Cesare Silvio Levi. Durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, elle rejoint la Résistance française, rencontre Valdemar Nechtschein (alias Victor Leduc, dit « Valdi »), se marie avec lui et ont deux filles, Anne, née en 1946, et Laure, née en 1951, mais divorcent en 1980. Devenue historienne d'art et ayant entre autres écrit en 1952 sur Van Gogh, elle en vient à s'intéresser à l'œuvre de son père et rédige en 1958 sa biographie, Modigliani, l'homme et le mythe. Elle meurt le 27 juillet 1984 à Pariset ses cendres se trouvent au crématorium-columbarium du Père-Lachaise (cf. wikipédia).
Amedeo Modigliani - Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne, 1918 at Barnes Foundation Philadelphia PA from the Masterworks Collection Catalog
Conté crayon; 29.5 × 22.1 cm.
Modigliani was born into a Jewish family of merchants. As a child he suffered from pleurisy and typhus, which prevented him from receiving a conventional 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—especially that of Siena—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 André Salmon and Max Jacob, with the artist Pablo Picasso, and—in 1907—with Paul Alexandre, a friend of many avant-garde artists and the first to become interested in Modigliani and to buy his works. In 1908 the artist exhibited five or six paintings at the Salon des Indépendants. In 1909 Modigliani met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, on whose advice he seriously studied African sculpture. To prepare himself for creating his own sculpture, he intensified his graphic experiments. In his drawings Modigliani tried to give the function of limiting or enclosing volumes to his contours. 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 entirely to painting about 1915, but his experience as a sculptor had fundamental consequences for 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 chiaroscuro (the use of gradations of light and shadow to achieve the illusion of three-dimensionality), and he achieved a sense of solidity with strong contours and the richness of juxtaposed colors.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 increased the difficulties of Modigliani’s life. Alexandre and some of his other friends were at the front, his paintings did not sell, and his already delicate health was deteriorating because of his poverty, feverish work ethic, and abuse of alcohol and drugs. He was in the midst of a troubled affair with the South African poet Beatrice Hastings, with whom he lived for two years, from 1914 to 1916. He was assisted, however, by the art dealer Paul Guillaume and especially by the Polish poet Leopold Zborowski, who bought or helped him to sell a few paintings and drawings.
Modigliani was not a professional portraitist; for him the portrait was only an occasion to isolate a figure as a kind of sculptural relief through firm and expressive contour drawing. He painted his friends, usually personalities of the Parisian artistic and literary world (such as the artists Juan Gris and Jacques Lipchitz, the writer and artist Jean Cocteau, and the poet Max Jacob), 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, glowing colors and sensuous, rounded forms, 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. His painting became increasingly refined in line and delicate in colour. A more tranquil life and the climate of the Mediterranean, however, did not restore the artist’s undermined health. After returning to Paris in May 1919, he became ill in January 1920; 10 days later he died of tubercular meningitis. Little-known outside avant-garde Parisian circles, Modigliani had seldom participated in official exhibitions. Fame came after his death, with a solo exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in 1922 and later with a biography by André Salmon. 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.
Huile sur toile, 73 x 117 cm, 1917, Guggenheim Museum, New-York.
Quand Amedeo Modigliani a quitté l'Italie pour Paris en 1906, les principaux artistes de l'avant-garde exploraient les formes et la construction d'objets "primitifs". Inspirés par les sculptures directement sculptées de Paul Gauguin, exposées dans une rétrospective cette année-là, Constantin Brancusi, André Derain, Henri Matisse et Pablo Picasso ont commencé à faire des sculptures archaïques en pierre et en bois. Brancusi, avec qui Modigliani a développé une amitié étroite, a exercé une forte influence sur lui. Cela est particulièrement évident dans ses tentatives de sculpture des années 1909-1915, quand il a fait des têtes et des cariatides idolâtres avec des formes monumentales et simplifiées.
Les préoccupations sculpturales de Modigliani ont été traduites en peinture dans Jeanne Hébuterne avec Le Pull jaune, dans laquelle il dépeint sa jeune compagne comme une sorte de déesse de la fertilité. Avec son visage étroit très stylisé et ses yeux vierges, elle a en effet le visage serein d'une divinité, et l'accent mis par l'artiste sur les hanches et les cuisses massives imite le sculptures anciennes fétichisant la reproduction. Cette œuvre et Le Pull jaune, avec leurs visages ovales simplifiés et allongés, leurs nez gracieusement atténués et leurs bouches de bouton, suggèrent l’intérêt de l’artiste pour les masques africains.
Modigliani a peint la figure humaine presque exclusivement et a créé au moins 26 nus féminins couchés (dont il n'en reste aujourd'hui que 22). Bien que l'impact de la pratique moderniste sur son art soit important, il était également profondément préoccupé par la tradition, les poses de Nu et œuvres similaires faisant écho aux précurseurs de Titien, Goya et Velázquez, mais différant considérablement par le niveau de sensualité brute qu’ils transmettent. Ses nus ont souvent été considérés comme lascifs, voire pornographiques, en partie parce qu’ils sont représentés avec des poils, mais peut-être aussi en raison de la réputation de l’artiste pour la débauche. Son surnom, Modi, rime avec le mot français maudit, un nom qu'il a très probablement acquis en raison de son mode de vie. Modigliani est mort de tuberculose et de complications probablement provoquées par la toxicomanie et la vie difficile. Le fait tragique que Jeanne Hébuterne, enceinte de leur deuxième enfant, se soit suicidée le lendemain n’a contribué qu’à alimenter la spéculation romantique concernant le travail de Modigliani (cf. Jennifer Blessing, Guggenheim Museum).
1916-1919. Oli sobre tela. 100 x 65 x 5,5 cm. Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo. MASP.00150.
Oil on canvas. 55.3 x 33 cm.
Modigliani was born into a Jewish family of merchants. As a child he suffered from pleurisy and typhus, which prevented him from receiving a conventional 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—especially that of Siena—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 André Salmon and Max Jacob, with the artist Pablo Picasso, and—in 1907—with Paul Alexandre, a friend of many avant-garde artists and the first to become interested in Modigliani and to buy his works. In 1908 the artist exhibited five or six paintings at the Salon des Indépendants. In 1909 Modigliani met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, on whose advice he seriously studied African sculpture. To prepare himself for creating his own sculpture, he intensified his graphic experiments. In his drawings Modigliani tried to give the function of limiting or enclosing volumes to his contours. 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 entirely to painting about 1915, but his experience as a sculptor had fundamental consequences for 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 chiaroscuro (the use of gradations of light and shadow to achieve the illusion of three-dimensionality), and he achieved a sense of solidity with strong contours and the richness of juxtaposed colors.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 increased the difficulties of Modigliani’s life. Alexandre and some of his other friends were at the front, his paintings did not sell, and his already delicate health was deteriorating because of his poverty, feverish work ethic, and abuse of alcohol and drugs. He was in the midst of a troubled affair with the South African poet Beatrice Hastings, with whom he lived for two years, from 1914 to 1916. He was assisted, however, by the art dealer Paul Guillaume and especially by the Polish poet Leopold Zborowski, who bought or helped him to sell a few paintings and drawings.
Modigliani was not a professional portraitist; for him the portrait was only an occasion to isolate a figure as a kind of sculptural relief through firm and expressive contour drawing. He painted his friends, usually personalities of the Parisian artistic and literary world (such as the artists Juan Gris and Jacques Lipchitz, the writer and artist Jean Cocteau, and the poet Max Jacob), 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, glowing colors and sensuous, rounded forms, 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. His painting became increasingly refined in line and delicate in colour. A more tranquil life and the climate of the Mediterranean, however, did not restore the artist’s undermined health. After returning to Paris in May 1919, he became ill in January 1920; 10 days later he died of tubercular meningitis. Little-known outside avant-garde Parisian circles, Modigliani had seldom participated in official exhibitions. Fame came after his death, with a solo exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in 1922 and later with a biography by André Salmon. 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.
An enlarged reproduction of the Modigliani painting which Christie's sold at auction for $170.4 million
www.cnbc.com/2015/11/10/modigliani-nude-sells-for-170-mln...
Le Parti de l'Impressionnisme, la collection Courtauld de Londres,
à la Fondation Louis Vuitton de Paris,
jusqu'au 17 juin 2019.
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
Oil on canvas
59.9 x 92 cm
www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/amedeo-modigliani-n...
Christie's
The Artist's Muse : A Curated Evening Sale
New York, 9 Nov 2015
channeling Modigliani. (one of my favorite painters) It says scanned in 99 so probably painted in 1998. It's water color crayon, water color and pastel
Amedeo Modigliani - Girl in a Green Blouse, 1917 at National Gallery of Art - East Wing - Washington DC
1916-1917. Oli sobre tela. 92 x 65 x 2 cm. Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo. MASP.00148.
1917. Oli sobre tela. 64,8 x 99,7 cm. The Barnes Foundation, Filadèlfia. BF576. Obra exposada: Sala 21.
Modigliani upended the tradition of the nude. Modern in their candid sensuality, his works in this genre are noticeably devoid of the modesty and mythological subtext present in many earlier depictions of nude figures. Because of these qualities - along with the artist's notorious womanizing - Modigliani's nudes were scandalously received at the time they were created. Modigliani's portraiture achieves a unique combination of specificity and generalization. His portraits convey his subjects' personalities, while his trademark stylization and use of recurring motifs - long necks and almond-shaped eyes - lends them uniformity. Modigliani's portraiture also serves as a vital art historic record, comprising a gallery of major figures of the Ecole de Paris circle, to which he belonged following his move to Paris in 1906. www.theartstory.org/artist-modigliani-amedeo.htm
Villeneuve d'Ascq (France), 4.2024
LaM, Musée d'Art Moderne
Peinture: "Nu assis à la chemise", Amedeo Modigliani (1917)
"Il y voyait bien davantage encore que le portrait sublime d'une femme dont il connaissait la peau, les cuisses, les hanches, les joues pourpres et la bouche incarnat. Il y voyait ce qu'elle ne lui apporterait plus, ce qu'aucune ne lui offrirait plus, évidemment pas la caresse amoureuse, mais cette richesse intense, l'absolue complicité qui lie le peintre à son modèle. [...] Comme si Chloé posant pour Modigliani, lui avait donné quelque chose qu'il avait connu naguère et qu'il ne percevait plus. Il regardait cette toile comme il voyait le monde, et il voyait le monde comme s'il avait les yeux crevés."
>>> Dan Franck.......in: Nu couché (1998)
"He saw in it much more than the sublime portrait of a woman whose skin, thighs, hips, crimson cheeks and incarnate mouth he knew. He saw in it what she would never give him again, what no woman would ever offer him again, obviously not the caress of love, but that intense richness, the absolute complicity that binds the painter to his model. [...] It was as if Chloé, posing for Modigliani, had given him something he had once known but no longer perceived. He looked at this canvas as he saw the world, and he saw the world as if his eyes were gouged out."
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"obsession - After Amedeo Modigliani "
by Denis
I’ve long been an admirer of Modigliani (1884-1920). It’s probably the way he painted the female figure that I find so seductive. His early death (35 years old) and the tragic ending of the love story between him and Jeanne Hébturne, has made his Art all the more poignant. Yet it’s interesting to note that in his day his nudes were seen as scandalous. I worked on this homage for two years, off and on, seeking not to emulate his art per sé, but to offer a new image that demonstated his obsession for the 19 year old girl who loved him so much that she commited suicide soon after he died of tuberculosis. Had he lived longer, I often wonder if he would have continued to paint her as she grew old or like Picasso, find another beautiful young model? I think this is what went through my mind as I painted this particular canvas.”
www.contemporary-artists.co.uk/paintings/obsession-after-...
Contemporary Artists
East German postcard by VEB DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme, Postdam-Babelsberg, no. 49, 1956. Photo: Pattenheimer.
The legendary idol of the French cinema Gérard Philipe (1922–1959) was adored for his good looks, but he was also a very talented actor. He played roles as diverse as Faust and Modigliani and he was sought out by France's preeminent directors for his versatility and professionalism.
Gérard Philipe (sometimes written as Philippe) was born Gérard Philip in Cannes, France in 1922. In 1940, Gérard left school and his parents wanted him to become a lawyer. His mother noticed that he was only interested in acting, but his father was against the idea. Gérard's father, a successful businessman, was a right-wing extremist and collaborated with the Nazis. After the war, he was forced to exile to Spain to escape a death sentence. Gérard himself was his whole life a staunch social liberal politically wise. Actor Claude Dauphin introduced the young Philipe in 1942 to the stage. One of his first parts was as the angel in 'Sodome et Gomorrhe' by Jean Giraudoux in 1943. Director Marc Allégret decided that he showed some promise and gave him a small part in his film Les petites du quai aux fleurs/The Girls From the Quai aux Fleurs (Marc Allégret, 1944) starring Odette Joyeux. With the support of his admirer Jean Cocteau, he entered the Paris Conservatory where under the tutelage of Georges Le Roy he discovered his passion for live theatre. In 1945 he received rave reviews for his performance in the stage production of Albert Camus’ 'Caligula'. This success further opened the doors to the cinema. His first leading part in Le pays sans étoiles/Land Without Stars (Georges Lacombe, 1946) opposite Jany Holt got so many favourable reviews that he became a star.
In 1947, Gérard Philipe exploded upon the European film scene in Le diable au corps/Devil in the Flesh (Claude Autant-Lara, 1947), playing Francois Jaubert, a callow youth in love with much older and very married Micheline Presle. Superstardom followed almost immediately: female filmgoers doted upon Philippe's sensitive, handsome features and strapping physique, while men identified with his soulfulness and introspection. Next, he would take on prominent roles in such classic films as Une si jolie petite plage/Such a Pretty Little Beach (Yves Allégret, 1949), and La beauté du diable/Beauty and the Devil (René Clair, 1950) as Faust. He was an international success as the tongue-in-cheek titular swashbuckler Fanfan la Tulipe/Fan-Fan the Tulip (Christian-Jaque, 1952), one of the most popular historical-adventure films made in France. At Films de France, James Travers reviews: "Not only is the film impeccably made, with lavish production values, stunning cinematography and impressively choreographed fight scenes, but it has a timeless quality which will no doubt ensure it will remain a popular classic for years to come. Philipe excels in this film in what is regarded by many as his finest film role, the indefatigable womaniser and agile swordsman Fanfan la Tulipe. Philipe is simply brilliant in the role, tackling the numerous swordfights and Henri Jeanson’s sparkling dialogue with equal relish." He appeared with such great stars of the European cinema as Italian beauty Gina Lollobrigida in Les belles de nuit/Beauties of the Night (René Clair, 1952), with Michèle Morgan in both Les orgueilleux/The Proud Ones (Yves Allégret, 1953) and Les grandes manœuvres/The Grand Maneuver (René Clair, 1955). In 1956, Philipe starred in and directed a filmization of the old folk tale Till Eulenspiegel, Les Aventures de Till L'Espiègle/Bold Adventure (Gérard Philipe, Joris Ivens, 1956). The French-East-German coproduction was not a success. He simultaneously pursued his stage career, with a keen involvement in the Théatre National de Paris, which would endure up until his death. Whilst working at the TNP, Philipe, a strong believer in egalitarianism, would draw exactly the same salary as junior actors. He would also become president of the French actors union, actively promoting the rights of actors.
Gérard Philipe continued his string of film successes throughout the 1950s. Among these films were the Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation Le joueur/The Gambler (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958) with Liselotte Pulver, and Les liaisons dangereuses/Dangerous Liaisons (Roger Vadim, 1959) opposite Jeanne Moreau. In 1959 doctors told Philippe that he had liver cancer. On 25 November that year, while working on Luis Buñuel's Le Fievre Monte a El Pao/Fever Mounts at El Pao (Luis Buñuel, 1959), he died at the peak of his popularity. He was just 36 years old. The news provoked an immediate and intense outpouring of grief. His early death elevated him to a near-legendary status in France. Since 1951, Philipe was married to actress and writer Nicole Fourcade, with whom he had two children, writer and actor Anne-Marie Philipe (1954) and Olivier Philipe (1957). Nicole adopted the pseudonym Anne Philipe and wrote two books about her husband, Souvenirs (1960) and Le Temps d'un soupir (1963, No Longer Than a Sigh). In 1961, Gérard's portrait appeared on a French commemorative postage stamp. There is a film festival named in his honour as well as a number of theatres, schools and colleges in various parts of France. He was also very popular in Germany, and a Berlin theatre has been named after him.
Sources: James Travers (Le Film Guide), AllMovie, Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Retrouvez dans ce portfolio les photos de Gérard Vilminot.
Les photos, pour une lecture plus rapide, sont ici en basse résolution.
Tous ces clichés sont disponibles en haute résolution pour des tirages de qualité supérieure sur tous types de supports. A l’exception des œuvres d’artistes bénéficiant de la protection propriété intellectuelle (sculpteurs, architectes, peintres, dessinateurs etc.)
Tirages et impression sur tous supports (tirage classique, d’art, support rigide, toile, bâche etc.…)
Réalisation de trompe l’œil.
PHOTO & TIRAGE en VENTE directe – DEVIS personnalisé SUR DEMANDE me contacter : comlaphoto@gmail.com
Oil on canvas.
Modigliani was born into a Jewish family of merchants. As a child he suffered from pleurisy and typhus, which prevented him from receiving a conventional 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—especially that of Siena—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 André Salmon and Max Jacob, with the artist Pablo Picasso, and—in 1907—with Paul Alexandre, a friend of many avant-garde artists and the first to become interested in Modigliani and to buy his works. In 1908 the artist exhibited five or six paintings at the Salon des Indépendants. In 1909 Modigliani met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, on whose advice he seriously studied African sculpture. To prepare himself for creating his own sculpture, he intensified his graphic experiments. In his drawings Modigliani tried to give the function of limiting or enclosing volumes to his contours. 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 entirely to painting about 1915, but his experience as a sculptor had fundamental consequences for 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 chiaroscuro (the use of gradations of light and shadow to achieve the illusion of three-dimensionality), and he achieved a sense of solidity with strong contours and the richness of juxtaposed colors.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 increased the difficulties of Modigliani’s life. Alexandre and some of his other friends were at the front, his paintings did not sell, and his already delicate health was deteriorating because of his poverty, feverish work ethic, and abuse of alcohol and drugs. He was in the midst of a troubled affair with the South African poet Beatrice Hastings, with whom he lived for two years, from 1914 to 1916. He was assisted, however, by the art dealer Paul Guillaume and especially by the Polish poet Leopold Zborowski, who bought or helped him to sell a few paintings and drawings.
Modigliani was not a professional portraitist; for him the portrait was only an occasion to isolate a figure as a kind of sculptural relief through firm and expressive contour drawing. He painted his friends, usually personalities of the Parisian artistic and literary world (such as the artists Juan Gris and Jacques Lipchitz, the writer and artist Jean Cocteau, and the poet Max Jacob), 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, glowing colors and sensuous, rounded forms, 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. His painting became increasingly refined in line and delicate in colour. A more tranquil life and the climate of the Mediterranean, however, did not restore the artist’s undermined health. After returning to Paris in May 1919, he became ill in January 1920; 10 days later he died of tubercular meningitis. Little-known outside avant-garde Parisian circles, Modigliani had seldom participated in official exhibitions. Fame came after his death, with a solo exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in 1922 and later with a biography by André Salmon. 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.
made on iphone
app(s) used : skb, jp, br, photogene to crop
copy of amadeo modigliani's "nudité étendue"
too busy this week, couldn't resist to fingerpaint a modigliani copy :)
East German postcard by VEB Volkskunstverlag Reichenbach L.V., no. G 591, 1956. Photo: Zentralbild, Berlin.
The legendary idol of the French cinema Gérard Philipe (1922–1959) was adored for his good looks, but he was also a very talented actor. He played roles as diverse as Faust and Modigliani and he was sought out by France's preeminent directors for his versatility and professionalism.
Gérard Philipe (sometimes written as Philippe) was born Gérard Philip in Cannes, France in 1922. In 1940, Gérard left school and his parents wanted him to become a lawyer. His mother noticed that he was only interested in acting, but his father was against the idea. Gérard's father, a successful businessman, was a right-wing extremist and collaborated with the Nazis. After the war, he was forced to exile to Spain to escape a death sentence. Gérard himself was his whole life a staunch social liberal politically wise. Actor Claude Dauphin introduced the young Philipe in 1942 to the stage. One of his first parts was as the angel in 'Sodome et Gomorrhe' by Jean Giraudoux in 1943. Director Marc Allégret decided that he showed some promise and gave him a small part in his film Les petites du quai aux fleurs/The Girls From the Quai aux Fleurs (Marc Allégret, 1944) starring Odette Joyeux. With the support of his admirer Jean Cocteau, he entered the Paris Conservatory where under the tutelage of Georges Le Roy he discovered his passion for live theatre. In 1945 he received rave reviews for his performance in the stage production of Albert Camus’ 'Caligula'. This success further opened the doors to the cinema. His first leading part in Le pays sans étoiles/Land Without Stars (Georges Lacombe, 1946) opposite Jany Holt got so many favourable reviews that he became a star.
In 1947, Gérard Philipe exploded upon the European film scene in Le diable au corps/Devil in the Flesh (Claude Autant-Lara, 1947), playing Francois Jaubert, a callow youth in love with much older and very married Micheline Presle. Superstardom followed almost immediately: female filmgoers doted upon Philippe's sensitive, handsome features and strapping physique, while men identified with his soulfulness and introspection. Next, he would take on prominent roles in such classic films as Une si jolie petite plage/Such a Pretty Little Beach (Yves Allégret, 1949), and La beauté du diable/Beauty and the Devil (René Clair, 1950) as Faust. He was an international success as the tongue-in-cheek titular swashbuckler Fanfan la Tulipe/Fan-Fan the Tulip (Christian-Jaque, 1952), one of the most popular historical-adventure films made in France. At Films de France, James Travers reviews: "Not only is the film impeccably made, with lavish production values, stunning cinematography and impressively choreographed fight scenes, but it has a timeless quality which will no doubt ensure it will remain a popular classic for years to come. Philipe excels in this film in what is regarded by many as his finest film role, the indefatigable womaniser and agile swordsman Fanfan la Tulipe. Philipe is simply brilliant in the role, tackling the numerous swordfights and Henri Jeanson’s sparkling dialogue with equal relish." He appeared with such great stars of the European cinema as Italian beauty Gina Lollobrigida in Les belles de nuit/Beauties of the Night (René Clair, 1952), with Michèle Morgan in both Les orgueilleux/The Proud Ones (Yves Allégret, 1953) and Les grandes manœuvres/The Grand Maneuver (René Clair, 1955). In 1956, Philipe starred in and directed a filmization of the old folk tale Till Eulenspiegel, Les Aventures de Till L'Espiègle/Bold Adventure (Gérard Philipe, Joris Ivens, 1956). The French-East-German coproduction was not a success. He simultaneously pursued his stage career, with a keen involvement in the Théatre National de Paris, which would endure up until his death. Whilst working at the TNP, Philipe, a strong believer in egalitarianism, would draw exactly the same salary as junior actors. He would also become president of the French actors union, actively promoting the rights of actors.
Gérard Philipe continued his string of film successes throughout the 1950s. Among these films were the Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation Le joueur/The Gambler (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958) with Liselotte Pulver, and Les liaisons dangereuses/Dangerous Liaisons (Roger Vadim, 1959) opposite Jeanne Moreau. In 1959 doctors told Philippe that he had liver cancer. On 25 November that year, while working on Luis Buñuel's Le Fievre Monte a El Pao/Fever Mounts at El Pao (Luis Buñuel, 1959), he died at the peak of his popularity. He was just 36 years old. The news provoked an immediate and intense outpouring of grief. His early death elevated him to a near-legendary status in France. Since 1951, Philipe was married to actress and writer Nicole Fourcade, with whom he had two children, writer and actor Anne-Marie Philipe (1954) and Olivier Philipe (1957). Nicole adopted the pseudonym Anne Philipe and wrote two books about her husband, Souvenirs (1960) and Le Temps d'un soupir (1963, No Longer Than a Sigh). In 1961, Gérard's portrait appeared on a French commemorative postage stamp. There is a film festival named in his honour as well as a number of theatres, schools and colleges in various parts of France. He was also very popular in Germany, and a Berlin theatre has been named after him.
Sources: James Travers (Le Film Guide), AllMovie, Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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