Diplomatic World_nummer 55

© Fabergé Museum
where they talked about painting, recited poems, discussed
ways they could get five francs, argued and reconciled. In the
end, someone would inevitably get drunk and be ejected from
the room.”
The new culture of Modernism, inspired by the end of the
First World War and the following economic upturn, made
art even more relevant and popular, and in the geographic
center of this movement, Paris, gave rise to the atmosphere
of unprecedented, boundless freedom. Fernand Léger writes
that a man in those years “could finally lift his head, open his
eyes and look before himself; he could shake off tension, and
regain his taste for life, eagerly long to dance, throw money
about, walk with a long stride, shout, wail, and squander.”
Montparnasse was thriving on free living, free love, and the
freedom of the arts.
However, the Bohemian life of this era was far from being
carefree for those who lived it. Young artists — Modigliani,
Soutine, Utrillo, and many others — lived in poverty, and
the public perceived their paintings as scandalous, so they
only rarely found buyers. Modigliani’s friends nicknamed
him “Modi” not only because of his surname, but because it
sounded similar to the French word ‘maudit’, which means
‘cursed’. This nickname became entrenched both for him and
the artists of his circle, whose lives were full of hardships and
failures.
One of the first serious collectors of their work, entrepreneur
and art-lover Jonas Netter played an enormous role in the
fate of these artists. He began to assemble his collection after
being introduced to art dealer Leopold Zborovsky in Paris in
1915. Zborovsky began working for Netter: communicating
with artists, collecting, exchanging, and re-selling their
works. With Netter’s financial backing, Zborovsky concluded
agreements with artists, paid them salaries, gave them money
to rent studios, and to purchase materials for painting and
other supplies. In that same year, 1915, Netter and Zborovsky
signed a contract with Modigliani, under the terms of which
they paid the artist 300 francs a month, for which they would
receive all the canvases he created. By 1917, the monthly
amount paid to the artist had grown to 500 francs and, by
1919, it had risen to 1.000 francs. Similar agreements existed
between Netter and Zborovsky with Soutine and Utrillo.
Netter’s enthusiasm for their creativity, as well as for the
works of Moïse Kisling, Suzanne Valadon, André Derain,
and other masters contributed to the emerging demand for
artists of the School of Paris and created a new segment in
the art market. Jonas Netter died in 1946, leaving his heirs
an invaluable collection of works by artists who are now
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