Painting and alcohol

Painting by Modigliani

At Christmass my father offered me a biopic of Modigliani. This made me reflect that Modigliani was mostly drunk when he created his elongated portraits. In fact, many of the great artists of the past century happened to drink quite heavily as well. I wondered how they managed to go about their task while drunk.

Painting requires a high-level of concentration to come about one's vision, and alcohol impairs one's ability to reflect correctly. Drunken, it's hard to visualize anything really. Yet, even though Modigliani was under the influence of alcohol he painted masterpieces. This is a proof he was certainly gifted and mastered his art. Yet, one cannot help but wonder if he would have created dull portraits, had he been sober.