Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form. Amedeo Modigliani was born July 12, 1884 in Livorno, Italy. After studying in Italy, Modigliani settled in Paris and exhibited at the Salon des Independants. Following the advice of Brancusi, he studied and was influenced by African sculpture. In 1917 he began painting a series of female nudes that are among his best works. Modigliani died in 1920 in Paris of tubercular meningitis, exacerbated by poverty, overwork and addiction to alcohol and narcotics."