As a child, I was intrigued by Amedeo Modigliani’s art. Looking back, I’m not surprised. After all, Modigliani was a modern painter who depicted stylized women, men, and children, a people person who executed few landscapes or still lifes.

To make his portraits of mostly seated figures, he focused on heads and torsos as if he were an Italian Renaissance master. Besides their blank stares, long noses, rosy lips, and exaggerated necks, his models wore interesting frocks and suits. Adding to the fascination, the artist, from time to time, inscribed on his colored surfaces the names of his subjects, which readily identified them.