In May 1919 Modigliani and Hébuterne returned to Paris with their infant daughter and moved into an apartment on the rue de la Grande Chaumière. Soon, Hébuterne was pregnant again and they became engaged, in spite of her parents being against the marriage due to Modigliani’s reputation as an alcoholic and drug user. Modigliani officially recognised his daughter as his child; however, the wedding plans were thwarted when he discovered he had a severe form of tuberculosis. Although he continued to paint, his health deteriorated rapidly and his alcohol-induced blackouts became more frequent.
In 1920, after not hearing from him for several days, a neighbour checked on the family and found the artist in bed delirious and holding on to Hébuterne. A doctor was summoned, but Modigliani was in the final stages of tubercular meningitis. He died on 24 January, 1920, at the Hôpital de la Charité. The funeral was attended by many mourners of the artistic communities in Montmartre and Montparnasse. When Modigliani died, twenty-one-year-old Hébuterne was eight months pregnant with their second child. A day later, Hébuterne was taken to her parents’ home. There, inconsolable, she threw herself out of a fifth-floor window, killing herself and her unborn child. Modigliani was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Hébuterne was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux near Paris, and it was not until 1930 that her embittered family allowed her body to be moved to rest beside Modigliani. A single tombstone honours them both. His epitaph reads: “Struck down by Death at the moment of glory”. Hébuterne’s epitaph reads: “Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice”.
Modigliani’s portraits of Jeanne Hébuterne are amongst his most celebrated works, revealing the intimate relationship between the sitter and the artist. The following plate is one of his last portraits, completed in 1920 and now held in a private collection. We can see Hébuterne pregnant with her second child, the bump rising noticeably above her left arm. The figure is once again dramatically elongated, juxtaposed with the sharp perspective of the door. The hues of the painting are rich in colour, once more embracing the dingier colours of Paris, where the artist seems more at home in his work. The face is entirely blank and mask-like, revealing the sorrowful time that was being experienced by both the artist and Hébuterne during its composition. The drained colour and pallid appearance of the sitter inform us of her concerns for her lover and, most likely, of Modigliani’s own fear of advancing death.