Modigliani: Young Woman Of The People

Amedeo Modigliani painted Young Woman of the People two years before his death in 1918. He used oil on a canvas that is 39 ¼ x 25 ¼ inches. Like many of his other portraits, Modigliani uses asymmetrical balance to give a certain perception of the subject to the viewer. The picture frames in the upper left corner balances the heavy bed frame in the lower right corner. He has three implied lines moving gradually up from left to right. The lines force the viewers attention to the subject from either side of the painting. He places emphasis on the woman’s face, hands, and forearms using these lines and by tinting them to contrast with the plain, shaded background. The viewer notices her strong forearms and hands because Modigliani brings them up to the foreground. He repeatedly uses oval shapes to depict her form and her bed while complimenting them with the square frames in the upper left corner. His painterly brushstrokes blur and shadow the background to bring sharp focus on the smooth, tigh

t strokes used for the subject. The earth tones Modigliani uses for the painting imply a subject in a simple life. He blends most of the colors, the only solid area of color being the woman’s shirt

When Modigliani left Paris, he began to paint the working class of France. He painted farm boys and servant girls in a smooth, anonymous manner. He depicts the subject in Young Woman of the People in her own environment. She lived on the top floor with other servants in the house they worked in. The simple background displays her humble living conditions while her flat shadow on the canvas shows the cheap decorations of her room. Her large hands and forearms give the impression that she used them for demanding chores. Her dull attire betrays her position in life. Modigliani declared that his paintings from this period were a mute affirmation of life. He painted his subjects with anonymity placing them outside of their own unique life and joining them with others in similar situations. His portraits of the working class became more stylized

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