Today is the birthday of Jeanne Hebuterne. She was born in 1898 in Meaux in Seine-et-Marne. Ever since I saw an exhibition of her artworks over 20 years ago, she has stuck in my mind. Muse, model, soulmate, and pupil of Amedeo Modigliani, she fell backwards thru a window in 1920, just 48 hours after he died. I tell Jeanne's story as rebellious teenager, woman, artist, and ghost in my novel Loving Modigliani: the Afterlife of Jeanne Hebuterne. As for the afterlife- it's an important part of the myth of Jeanne H, for her identity as an artist wasn't really known until 2000, when her extraordinary sketchbooks were first exhibited. I was lucky to stumble upon that show. Since then, the value of her work – once considered mere memorabilia – has skyrocketed. In creating the character of Jeanne, and fleshing out the sixteen year old art student—one of the tools I employed was her horoscope.
A Quick look at her horoscope gives us some insight into Jeanne's personality.
Aries sun with Scorpio rising— makes Mars powerful in her chart. Jeanne is much more a woman warrior, determined to get what she wants -- than her family imagined, when she began to divide her time between Modigliani's studio and her parents' cozy apartment near the Pantheon. Jeanne was headstrong, insistent, devoted, passionate, moody and deep. Her parents didn't even know she was in a serious relationship until she became pregnant.
The sun and venus in the 6th house, near the cusp of the 7th, gave her a profound sense of service, which she expressed in her relationship with Modigliani and with art. Mars in the 4th house indicates conflict in the family, square to Saturn— disagreements with her father, which, given her gentle nature must have made her suffer. But it also shows her conflict wiht authority and convention. Uranus and Saturn in the second house show the rapid shifts of her economic status, once she had taken up with Modi. Her moon in the twelfth house – the house of sorrows and spiritual trials – is an indication of her emotional depth, pronounced spirituality, and of her creativity that sprang from the unconscious. Opposite her sun, it suggests an inner struggle between romance and reality, between her dreams and the practical details of daily life. The square of Mars, Saturn, Neptune also indicates conflicts with the men in her life and the disappointments and deception they bring.
Lastly, the presence of Pluto and Neptune in the 8th house is significant. The eighth house is the house of death and may describe the circumstances of Jeanne's death – as either planet in this house suggest an unusual manner of death. But this is also the house of what is shared with one's partner, and shows us how deeply Jeanne fused her identity with that of her partner, Amedeo Modigliani.
Why was her afterlife so important? For eighty years, her artworks were kept hidden from the public in her brother's studio. All the while, Jeanne's daughter, Giovanna/Jeanne Modigliani was trying to negotiate with the Hebuterne family to have access to Jeanne's artworks and other documents in the family's possession. She also rewrote Modigliani's story and the story of Jeanne, disspelling many myths concerning Modigliani's life, in two separate biographies of her father. Overtime, Jeanne's talent and her role as an artist in Montparnasse has been revealed. But as is always the case with Modigliani, myths and legends cannot completely be stripped away. We have records of a diary and of letters written by Jeanne, which so far have never surfaced. We have some extraordinary sketches by her, and others that are clearly fakes. Even her original place of burial changed, when she was moved from a small suburban cemetery to lie with Modigliani in Père Lachaise cemetry. It is also this aspect of her afterlife I try to recreate in the latter section of Loving Modigliani.
For more about Modi & Jeanne see my posts
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