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My Artistic Love Hurts Valentines Day Vignette ironically began with a Christmas gift from my husband. I was captivated by a painting I saw in a thrift store. The artist was a Jewish Italian painter named Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. He is known for portraits and nudes with elongated faces. Some of his paintings are at the Art Institute of Chicago. I went there last year, but don’t remember seeing anything similar to my painting. Anyway, I walked around with the painting in my buggy for a while. Then, I put it back because it was $20.
This year for Christmas, we did “thrift store night” on Christmas Eve. I bought my husband and children an item or two from thrift stores, wrapped them, and put the presents under the tree. I had to wash the sweaters and sweatshirts while they were asleep to keep the surprise. I made sure I wrapped all of the thrift store items in the same paper so that we wouldn’t confuse them with our regular presents. My husband had a big, rectangular item wrapped for me. I had forgotten about the Modigliani painting from the thrift store. Imagine my joy and surprise when I opened it!
The Woman in the Painting
The woman in the painting looks tortured and unhappy to me. I imagined her to be the victim of unrequitted love. Maybe Modigliani was in love with her and she didn’t love him back. Maybe she didn’t want to pose for him, but needed the money. The skeleton hands are actually servers from Pottery Barn’s Halloween collection. I used them to represent the death of the fantasy of love we carry in our minds. The Goebel bluebird is our ideal vision of true love.
I did some research, and found some information on the subject of the portrait. Jeanne Hebuterne was a French painter and Modigliani’s common-law wife. Isn’t she gorgeous? She was the subject of many of his paintings. Now I’m thinking she wanted him to hurry up and finish so she could sit down. I read that Modigliani depicts most of his subjects with pathos, so we can’t assume that she was unhappy. She took her own life two days after Modigliani died. Tuberculosis and his bohemian lifestyle led to an early death. She must have really loved him. Their love story is perfect for Valentines Day.
Mackenzie-Childs Inspired fruit Bowl
I found the inspired by Mackenzie-Childs fruit bowl while thrifting last week. Who is Mackenzie-Childs anyway? I found out it is actually an artist couple, Victoria Mackenzie and Richard Childs. From what I can gather, they began an upscale homegoods business in Aurora, New York, in the 1980s. By the late 1990s, they owed the bank 15 million dollars. The bank convinced the owner of American Girl dolls to buy the couple’s business and intellectual property for a mere 6 million dollars. So, all of that recently-purchased black and white and other Courtly Check stuff is probably not made by the original artists. But you can buy their authentic art here, at Victoria and Richard Emprise.
Victoria and Richard currently live on a New York Ferry, The Yankee. You should read their story, and see how they decorated and restored the historic 1907 ferry that once carried Ellis Island passengers. It is fascinating. So is the court case regarding the trademark and intellectual property of Mackenzie-Childs.
Books About Disappointed Love
I included two of my favorite books. Both He’s Just Not That Into You and Of Human Bondage deal with the subject of disappointed love. A Valentines Day vignette would be empty without books about love. Somerset Vaughn has another great book, The Painted Veil. I like the ending in the movie with Edward Norton better than the book.
I am reminded of Jeremiah 17:9:
“The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
Other Valentines Day Vignette Elements
The Love plate is part of a set from Crate and Barrel. The coffee cup is Chip from Beauty and the Beast. The bottom made me think of Mackenzie-Childs’ colorful stripes. I bought the bouquet of dried flowers from Walmart. My Valentines Day Vignette subject, Jeanne Hebuterne, was definitely boho, so dried flowers were appropriate.
The runner is something I made from Mary Englebreit material several decades ago. It represents the happiness everyone eventually finds with their one true love after kissing a few frogs along the way.
I hope you enjoyed my Artistic Love Hurts Valentines Day Vignette.
Happy Valentine’s Day,
Kristie
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Read Old World Platters and Plaid Valentine’s Day Vignette. This is what I had on my curio cabinet last year.
Nancy says
I was delighted to read about the items in your vignette. It explained all your choices and brought it all togethr for me.
Kristie Schubert says
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Nancy. The history behind things is always interesting to me.