Modigliani and Mirvish

It was at David Mirvish Books that I bought one of my favourite biographies, Neil Baldwin's Man Ray American Artist. The store, on Hogtown's Markham Street, which David's father, the irrepressible Honest Ed, once suggested could be turned into a Venice-like canal - he may have been joking - closed a couple of years ago and I realize I still miss the place. That's because in today's Sunday Star I read Peter Goddard's praise for Modigliani: A Life by Meryle Secrest, exactly the kind of book browsers could find in David Mirvish Books in surroundings that were unhurried and unobtrusive.

Much of what's in Modigliani: A Life will be known by those of us who are interested in the artist, I expect. Still, Goddard says Secrest's book is written in clean, clear prose, free of all art babble and for that we should be grateful. Just one quibble, though. I recall reading, I forget where and when, that Modigliani fathered a son with a French Canadian woman from Quebec City. The child, called Charles Sirois - I remember that much - flipped when he learned of his paternity and promptly joined an order of monks. I have no idea if the story is true or not. Either way Goddard could have addressed this bit of Canadiana in his review.