Amedeo Modigliani — his first name means “beloved of God” — became known soon after his death as le maudit — the cursed one. An Italian painter who lived in Paris just before and after World War I, Modigliani worked alongside such modernist greats as Picasso, Braque, Derain and Brancusi but was never quite considered their equal. Since his death at 35 of tubercular meningitis, he has assumed a mythic stature — but not for his art. Rather, he is known in the popular imagination as a drunken, drug-addicted, womanizing exhibitionist whose long-suffering companion, Jeanne Hebuterne, threw herself out a window within days of his death when she was eight months pregnant with their second child.

Now Meryle Secrest, a noted author who has written biographies of Salvador Dali, Frank Lloyd Wright, Stephen Sondheim and others, has taken on the conventional wisdom and delivered a sympathetic reassessment of Modigliani’s short, tragic life and his place in the development of 20th-century modern art.