The Artist, The Model and The Critic. (Revised).

This face is not a mask,
The thick layers of make up
Accentuate her beauty,
Changes fault lines into graceful
                                     highlights,
And flatters her strong cheekbones.
The critic was a fool who thought this
                                  face a mask.

And look how sensitive the glance
                                      of her eyes,
This girl with the raven hair
Looking shyly back over her shoulder
Into the gaze of the artist.
The critic did not look into her eyes,
He wanted to see a mask and so he saw one.

The artist had seen her with the eyes
                                   of the sculptor
He had struggled to be
Before his lungs were ruined by marble dust
And he resorted to paint and pencil.-
Stretched awkwardly across the single bed
The girl looks over her shoulder into his eyes,
Trusting him to observe every part of her body,
Every shadow in her mind.
He works with the skill of a surgeon,
Or cartographer of the human psyche,
                      Of the depths of the wayward soul.-
His concentration is absolute
As he guides the sable brush.

He sought solace on the streets, but
this girl was not a prostitute, her shyness
                                              indicates this,
And perhaps he had paid her more
Than the customary five Francs,
That is if his dealer had allowed him,
Modigliani was, after all, a destitute young artist,
Unfashionable and struggling to make ends meet.
And something about her makes me think this girl
Was a favourite model,
                        A trusted co-creator,
                        An equal in the workplace,
Someone he cared for more than a means
                                                     to an end,
A friend that he respected.
Something in the loving tilt of her head
Tells me this is so.

No, he has not portrayed her features as a mask,
There is a desperate sorrow beneath the artifice.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
April 3rd, 2018. - July 18th. - 19th. - August. 5th. 2019.
Developed from the unfinished poem Amedeo Modigliani I sketched in April 2018.