Amedeo Modigliani was the essence of a tragic artist. He sketched furiously, sometimes drawing over 100 sketches in a day, but many of his works were lost, given away, or in some cases, destroyed by Modigliani himself. His favorite subject was by far the human form, painting the likenesses of other artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Max Jacob, and Juan Gris, who all sat for the artist. His formal works are characterized an elongation of the human form and mask-like faces, and his work is so unlike any other of his time that it still defies classification. During his time, other artists imitated him by engaging in a self-destructive lifestyle, and still today, his fame lives on in 9 novels and dozen films.