Jeanne Hébuterne (1898-1920) French artist-painter, last companion of Amedeo Modigliani:
Nicknamed “Coconut” because of her milky white complexion and brown hair with red highlights, she is known nowadays for her romantic relationship with Amedeo Modigliani.
She settles down with Modigliani, right next to the Colarossi Academy, in a workshop that hires them Léopold Zborowski, the painter’s agent, who then combats to sell his paintings.
Convinced of Modigliani’s talent, Zborowski sent the couple to rest at Nice on November 29, 1918, Jeanne gave birth to a little girl, Giovanna Hébuterne (1918-1984). Modigliani will recognize her belatedly to give her his name ; She will become the biographer of his father.
In the fall of 1919, the couple returned to Paris, Jeanne Hébuterne gradually ceased all artistic activity after having taken photographs, created jewelry and clothing. From new pregnant, she’s the model from painter.
But the state of health by Modigliani and stops worsening, suffering from pleurisy since childhood, then tuberculous meningitis, he has been abusing drugs and alcohol for too long. He died at 35, on the evening of January 24, 1920.
Jeanne’s parents then welcome her with her child but, two days later, around four in the morning, escaping the vigilance of her brother, Jeanne, desperate to have lost the love of her life, is thrown out the window of the 5th. floor of her parents’ apartment.
Chantal Quenneville, who was her friend at the Académie Colarossi, reports the following facts :
“The dislocated body had been branched out into the yard by a worker who had transported it just to the shield of the fifth floor, where the appalled parents had shut the door in his face. The body was then transported by the same worker, in a stroller, at the workshop of the Grande Chaumière, or the porter had refused, declaring that “was not an official tenant”. At the end, this worker went to the police station where he was told to bring him back, by order of the police, on rue de la Grande-Chaumière. The body remained there, I left, all morning.”
On January 27, 1920, Modigliani was buried with the Père-Lachaise cemetery, accompanied by the artists of Montmartre and Montparnasse. Jeanne, for her part, is buried in the next day, at dawn, in the cemetery of Bagneux in privacy.
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