Jeanne Hébuterne

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Jeanne Hébuterne (6 April 1898 – 26 January 1920) was a French painter and art model. She is best known as the frequent subject and common‑law wife of the artist Amedeo Modigliani. She died by suicide two days after Modigliani’s death and is buried beside him.

She was born in Meaux, France, to a Catholic family. Her brother André introduced her to the Paris artistic community in Montparnasse, where she modeled for artists including Tsuguharu Foujita. She studied drawing at the Académie Colarossi and met Modigliani in spring 1917 through the sculptor Chana Orloff. They fell in love, and she moved in with him against her parents’ wishes.

In 1918 the couple moved to Nice on the French Riviera, hoping Modigliani could gain more attention from art buyers. Their daughter, Jeanne Modigliani, was born on 29 November 1918. Jeanne Hébuterne reportedly faced domestic violence from Modigliani during their relationship. The couple returned to Paris, and Jeanne became pregnant again while Modigliani’s health deteriorated from tuberculosis and substance abuse.

Modigliani died on 24 January 1920. Two days later, on 26 January, Jeanne Hébuterne died by jumping from a fifth‑floor window; she was eight months pregnant with their second child. Her family initially buried her in the Cimetière de Bagneux, but about ten years later her remains were moved to Père Lachaise Cemetery to lie beside Modigliani. Her epitaph reads: “Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice.”

Their daughter, Jeanne Modigliani (1918–1984), was adopted by Modigliani’s sister in Florence and later wrote a biography of her father, published in English as Modigliani: Man and Myth.