The portrait of Aristide
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The portrait of Aristide
Two of the young Modigliani's friends were Aristide Sommati and Benvenuto Benvenuti, artists and painters who were fellow apprentices in Micheli’s studio. Aristide would go on to be a baker and was a great childhood friend. The episode that bears witness to their friendship but also the light-hearted atmosphere that Amedeo was welcomed into after the Parisian period, involves these two friends from his teenage years.
They were sitting at a table in Cafe’ Bardi, in an afternoon of chatting among artists.
Amedeo was sketching the caricature of his friend Aristide on the café's headed paper, in his unmistakeable style, when Benvenuto taunted him as usual for the new “style” that was so distant from the Macchiaioli world.
Then his friend taunted Amedeo: “I could have done that myself”.
The young Modigliani responded immediately: “Oh really? So have this!”, immediately signing the portrait with the name Benvenuto Benvenuti.
The portrait hangs in the Fattori Museum in Livorno.
(source: https://iltirreno.gelocal.it/regione/2017/05/05/news/modi-un-ritratto-e-gli-amici-del-caffe-bardi-1.15294101)