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Sans Titre - 27-07-23, Drawing, Pencil/Colored Pencil on Paper
By Corne Akkers
Located in Yardley, PA
Return to Stardom This grapite pencil drawing ‘Sans Titre – 27-07-023’ is a return to stardom once more. Veronica Lake was the last one in the series. Lulus I consider a ser...
Category

2010s Cubist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Pencil

Un Chemin dans la Forêt by Paulémile Pissarro - Pastel and charcoal drawing
By Paul Emile Pissarro
Located in London, GB
Un Chemin dans la Forêt by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Pastel and charcoal on paper 24 x 31 cm (9 ¹/₂ x 12 ¹/₄ inches) Stamped lower middle-right, Paulémile Pissarro Provenance E...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Pastel

A Sailing Ship at the Port
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Miami, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (1878–1965) A Sailing Ship at the Port, 1909 Watercolor on cardboard Signed lower right 'A. Walkowitz', in pencil '1909' Dimensions: 33.5 x 56 cm Born: Tyumen, Ru...
Category

Early 1900s Post-Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Yvonne debout by Paulémile Pissarro - Nude drawing of the artist s wife
By Paul Emile Pissarro
Located in London, GB
THIS WORK IS SOLD UNFRAMED Yvonne debout by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Pencil on paper 30.5 x 26 cm (12 x 10 ¹/₄ inches) Signed lower centre, P...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

River Eure, Lyons la Forêt by Paulémile Pissarro - Landscape watercolour
By Paul Emile Pissarro
Located in London, GB
River Eure, Lyons la Forêt by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Watercolour and crayon on paper 31.5 x 48.5 cm (12 ³/₈ x 19 ¹/₈ inches) Titlted, signed and dated lower left, Lyons la Fo...
Category

1920s Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Crayon, Watercolor

New York Improvisation
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Miami, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (1878–1965) New York Improvisation, 1910 Ink wash on paper Signed lower right 'A. Walkowitz 1910' Titled and dated on Zabriskie Gallery label enclosed in clear sle...
Category

Early 1900s Post-Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink

Improvisations of New York
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Miami, FL
Abraham Walkowitz (1878–1965) Improvisations of New York, 1910 Watercolor and pencil on paper Signed lower right 'A. Walkowitz 1910' Dimensions: 7 x 5 inches (paper) Titled on Berna...
Category

Early 1900s Post-Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Village au bord de l Eau, Graphite on Paper by Paulémile Pissarro, 1934
Located in London, GB
SOLD UNFRAMED Village au bord d l'Eau by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Graphite on paper 32 x 23.5 cm (12 ⁵/₈ x 9 ¹/₄ inches) Signed lower right, Paulémile-Pissarro- Executed circ...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Graphite

Le Ramassage de Foin by Paulémile Pissarro - Work on paper
By Paul Emile Pissarro
Located in London, GB
Le Ramassage de Foin by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Charcoal on paper 26 x 33 cm (10 ¹/₄ x 13 inches) Signed lower left, Paulémile- Pissarro- This work is accompanied by a certif...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal

Moulin Vardon près Gournay, Graphite on Paper by Paulémile Pissarro, circa 1934
Located in London, GB
SOLD UNFRAMED Moulin Vardon près Gournay, Graphite on Paper by Paulémile Pissarro, 1934 Graphite on paper 32 x 23.5 cm (12 ⁵/₈ x 9 ¹/₄ inches) Signed lower right, Paulémile-Pissarr...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Graphite

L Église de Morgny-Eure by Paulémile Pissarro, 1927
Located in London, GB
L'Église de Morgny-Eure by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Watercolour and black crayon on paper 31.5 x 43.5 cm (12 ³/₈ x 17 ¹/₈ inches) Signed lower right, Paulémile and dated, Mor...
Category

1920s Post-Impressionist Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Etude d une Maraîchère coupant l herbe by Paulémile Pissarro - work on paper
Located in London, GB
Etude d'une Maraîchère coupant l'herbe by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Ink on paper 22.6 x 30.9 cm (8 ⁷/₈ x 12 ¹/₈ inches) Signed lower right, Paulémile-Pissarro Study of a vege...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Études sur Titu by Paulémile Pissarro - Study drawing, 1938
Located in London, GB
Études sur Titu by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Watercolour and pencil on paper 33.5 x 23.6 cm (13 ¹/₄ x 9 ¹/₄ inches) Signed lower middle Paulémile-Pissarro- and inscribed upper...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

Fishing Boats from Monterey
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Donna Schuster. "Fishing Boats from Monterey" is a waterscape painting, watercolor on paper in a palette of blues, whites and browns by American female artist Donna Sch...
Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Waterco...

Materials

Watercolor

"Untitled" Mid 20th Century American Abstract 1960s Color Field Abstraction
Located in New York, NY
"Untitled" Mid 20th Century American Abstract 1960s Color Field Abstraction James Daugherty (1887 – 1974) "Untitled" 10 1/2 x 8 inches Pastel on paper Initialed lower right and dat...
Category

1960s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Study for Batavia (The Woodcutters)
By Serge Ferat (Sergei Nicolaevitch Comte de Jastrebtsov)
Located in London, GB
SERGE FERAT 1881-1958 (Le Comte Sergueï Yastrebzov) Moscow 1881-1958 Paris (Russian/French) Title: Study for Batavia (The Woodcutters), circa 1926 Technique: Original Pencil Drawin...
Category

1920s Cubist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pencil

Dessin
Located in PARIS, FR
Philippe Hiquily (1925 – 2013) is a French artist and designer known for biomorphic furniture and sculptures. He was able to combine modernist design, insect physiognomy, and human s...
Category

20th Century Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper

Pêcheurs by Paulémile Pissarro - Drawing of fishermen
By Paul Emile Pissarro
Located in London, GB
Pêcheurs by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Pencil on paper 23.1cm x 30.9 Stamped lower left, Paulémile-Pissarro- This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity by Lélia P...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Etude d une Maraîchère coupant l herbe by Paulémile Pissarro - Ink on Paper
Located in London, GB
Etude d'une Maraîchère coupant l'herbe by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Ink on paper 22.6 x 30.9 cm (8 ⁷/₈ x 12 ¹/₈ inches) Stamped lower left, Paulémile-Pissarro This work is ac...
Category

20th Century Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Carte de l Europe by Paulémile Pissarro, 1972 - Graphite on paper
Located in London, GB
THIS WORK IS SOLD UNFRAMED Carte de l'Europe by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Graphite on paper 12.9 x 20 cm (5 ¹/₈ x 7 ⁷/₈ inches) Provenance Estate of the Artist Yvonne Pissa...
Category

1970s Post-Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper

Hommes Pagayant, Work on paper by Paulémile Pissarro - Drawing
Located in London, GB
SOLD UNFRAMED Hommes Pagayant, Painting by Paulémile Pissarro Graphite and charcoal on paper 27 x 20.3 cm (10 ⁵/₈ x 8 inches) Signed lower right, Paulémile-Pissarro- Provenance Est...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Graphite

Etude de Poules by Paulémile Pissarro - Ink on paper
Located in London, GB
SOLD UNFRAMED Etude de Poules by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Ink on paper 23 x 31 cm (9" x 12 ¹/₄ inches) Signed with estate stamp lower left This work is accompanied by a ce...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Etude de Chiens by Paulémile Pissarro - Ink on paper
Located in London, GB
SOLD UNFRAMED Etude de Chiens by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Ink on paper 23 x 31 cm (9 x 12 ¹/₄ inches) Signed with estate stamp lower left This work is accompanied by a ce...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink

Le Ramassage des Foins by Paulémile Pissarro - Graphite drawing
By Paul Emile Pissarro
Located in London, GB
Le Ramassage des Foins by Paulémile Pissarro (1884-1972) Graphite on paper 12.9 x 20 cm (5 ¹/₈ x 7 ⁷/₈ inches) Signed lower left, Paulémile-Pissarro- Provenance Estate of the Artist...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Graphite

Figures de Profil by Paulémile Pissarro, 1972 - Pencil on paper
Located in London, GB
THIS WORK IS SOLD UNFRAMED Figures de Profil by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Pencil on paper 12.9 x 20 cm (5 ¹/₈ x 7 ⁷/₈ inches) Signed lower right, Paulémile-Pissarro- Proven...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Les Devoirs by Paulémile Pissarro, 1950s, Drawing, Graphite
Located in London, GB
SOLD UNFRAMED Les Devoirs by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Graphite on paper 20.2 x 27 cm (8 x 10 ⁵/₈ inches) Signed lower left, Paulémile-Pissarro- and dated upper left Execute...
Category

1950s Post-Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Graphite

Etude d Yvonne en 1934 by Paulémile Pissarro, 1934 - pencil on paper, Drawing
Located in London, GB
THIS WORK IS SOLD UNFRAMED Etude d'Yvonne en 1934 by Paulémile Pissarro (1884 - 1972) Coloured pencil and pencil on paper 32 x 23.5 cm (12 ⁵/₈ x 9 ¹/₄ inches) Signed middle, Paulémi...
Category

1930s Post-Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Color Pencil

La Plage
By André Lhote
Located in Los Angeles, CA
ANDRE LHOTE "LA PLAGE" PASTEL, SIGNED FRANCE, C.1927 17.75 X 24 INCHES André Lhote 1885-1962 Lhote was born in Bordeaux, France in 1885. H...
Category

1930s Cubist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Pastel

La Plage
Price Upon Request
Guitare sur un guéridon by Pablo Picasso
By Pablo Picasso
Located in New Orleans, LA
Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 Spanish Guitare sur un guéridon (Guitar on a pedestal) Gouache on Western wove paper laid on board Signed “Picasso” (upper left) Picasso’s prolific career has been marked by many grand love affairs, both romantic, intellectual and creative. Beyond his lovers like Olga Khoklova and Dora Maar and his intellectual muses like Georges Braques and Gertrude Stein, Picasso’s greatest love and inspiration was perhaps a humble instrument: the guitar. Whether it be the Old Guitarist from his early blue period, his groundbreaking series of three-dimensional guitar sculptures from his nascent explorations in Cubism, or his Mandolin and Guitar composition’s grander explorations with color and biomorphic shapes, the guitar is an elusive calling card for modern art’s greatest genius. In Guitare sur un guéridon, Picasso intertwines his signature guitar and a bowl of fruit. These two elements are playfully brought together and skillfully anchored on the tabletop by a square positioned at the center of the composition. The result is a captivating and harmonious arrangement that showcases Picasso's artistic ingenuity in blending these everyday objects into a visually striking and cohesive composition. This rare gouache was created during the pivotal summer of 1920. During this time, Picasso lived in Juan-les-Pins, a small coastal resort town in the South of France away from the confines of the city and the fallout of World War I. With this newfound freedom, Picasso entered an exciting and innovative creative period and began to interrogate the connections between Neoclassicism and Cubism. Picasso created a series of gouache paintings characterized by their flat, geometric nature, sinuous contours and strikingly vivid colors. Though not a complete departure from his previous Cubist works, this series showcased the influence of the Surrealists, especially the biomorphic subconscious explorations of Joan Miró, upon Picasso’s oeuvre. While the breadth of his creativity grew, he returned back to a familiar motif — the guitar — with a renewed sense of vigor and excitement. Guitare sur un guéridon’s undulating lines and biomorphic appeal bring Picasso's preoccupation with the guitar into deeper focus. The sinuous lines of guitar mirror...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Board

Untitled (Abstraction IV Geometric)
By Arthur Dove
Located in London, GB
Dove uses ink to render angular and rounded shapes, he then fills in these shapes with gouache using loose brush marks which create a sensitive textural landscape. The transparency o...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

The Tramp, Watercolour and Pencil Painting by William Roberts, 1945 circa
By William Roberts
Located in Kingsclere, GB
The Tramp, Watercolour and Pencil Painting by William Roberts, 1945 circa Additional information: Medium: Watercolour and pencil 35 x 53 cm 13 3/4 x 20 7/8 in William Roberts was a British artist, sometimes known as the 'English Cubist'. Born in London Fields, Hackney in 1895, Roberts's artistic ability was evident from an early age, the teachers at his primary school allowed him to devote class time to drawing and eventually his art mistress suggested he be transferred to a school with greater art resources. Upon leaving school Roberts was apprenticed to a commercial art firm and he attended evening classes run by William P. Robins at St Martins School of Art. At fifteen years old, Roberts won a London County Council Scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art where his fellow students included Dora...
Category

20th Century Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

"Men at the Seattle Public Market" (Two Figures)
By Mark Tobey
Located in Missouri, MO
Mark Tobey "Men at the Seattle Public Market" (Two Figures) 1958 Ink and Tempera on Silk Signed and Dated Lower Left *This is a rare and important work. See attached images with book...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Silk, Ink, Tempera

May 60 (Duomo Pisa), Watercolour Painting by Ben Nicholson, 1960
By Ben Nicholson
Located in Kingsclere, GB
May 60 (Duomo Pisa), Watercolour Painting by Ben Nicholson 1894-1982, 1960 Additional information: Medium: Watercolour and pencil on paper, mounted on the Artist's board 46.2 x 60.4...
Category

20th Century Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

Portrait of Berthe Lipchitz - Modern Portrait Pencil Drawing - Amedeo Modigliani
By Amedeo Modigliani
Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Signed pencil on paper portrait drawing by Italian artist Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. The portrait is of Berthe Lipchitz who was the wife of Modigliani's friend, the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. This work is a study for "Portrait of Jacques & Berthe Lipchitz" which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 26.75"x18.25" Unframed: 18.75"x12.25" Provenance: The collection of Leopold Survage The collection of Dimitri Snegaroff The collection of Leopold Zborowski Galerie Charpentier - Paris 1958 Private french collection Galerie Pierre Levy - Paris Private collection - United Kingdom Exhibited: Galerie Charpentier - Cent Tableaux de Modigliani - Paris, 1958 Les Peintres de Zborowski - ~Foundation L'Hermitage, Lausanne 1994 Amedeo Modigliani Exhibition - Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano 1999 Amedeo Modigliani was born into a middle-class Jewish family and was the brother of Eugenio Modigliani, who later became the leader of the Italian socialist workers’ party prior to the rise of fascism. Modigliani suffered from poor health as a child and contracted pleurisy in 1895, followed in 1898 by typhus with pulmonary complications, which culminated in tuberculosis in 1901. He moved to Livorno to study under Guglielmo Micheli, who had himself been a pupil of Giovanni Fattori, one of the Macchiaioli group of painters who worked in strong colour patches (macchie) to achieve vivid light and colour effects; their approach came as a reaction against academic art in Italy and, in much the same way as the French Impressionists, they advocated painting from nature rather than aspiring to communicate any particular message or ideology. In 1902, Modigliani enrolled at the academy of fine arts in Florence. He travelled to Rome and Venice in 1903, where he devoted the bulk of his day to visiting museums. At around this time he started to read Dante, dreaming no doubt of the Vita Nuova; he also devoured the works of Leopardi, Carducci, d’Annunzio, Spinoza and Nietzsche. In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris, lodging at the Rue Caulaincourt. At that juncture, nothing about him appeared to presage the brilliant career that was to follow. His arrival in the artists’ quarter, then known colloquially as the maquis - the labyrinthine tangle of narrow streets around today’s Avenue Junot in Montmartre - went virtually unnoticed by the artists already living and working there, including Picasso, Braque and Derain. Modigliani’s painting made next to no immediate impact and he was recognised primarily on account of his frail constitution, flashing eyes, innate elegance and intellectual prowess. He was accepted in the community that was Montmartre but never belonged to any particular ‘set’ or circle, and there is no record of his ever having been invited to Pablo Picasso’s studio, the famous ‘wash house’. The literate and highly articulate Modigliani opted instead for the companionship of Maurice Utrillo, an instinctual painter of whom it could charitably have been said that his conversation was, at best, limited. Nonetheless, Modigliani and ‘Litrillo’ (as Utrillo was commonly known to the street urchins - the ‘p’tits poulbots’) began to frequent the cabarets and dance halls of the Butte de Montmartre, and the nefarious hashish dens - post-Baudelaire ‘institutions’, frequented in the main by out-of-work writers and talentless artists. Modigliani developed an addiction, which, compounded by his alcoholism, took its toll. It also transformed him from an artist of limited ability into one devoid of bourgeois scruples. In his monograph, Modigliani: Sa Vie et Son Oeuvre, written in 1926 shortly after Modigliani’s death, André Salmon hinted at a ‘pact with the devil’. While somewhat overstating the case, this rather unpromising painter from Livorno metamorphosed virtually overnight into an artist of rare ability and sensitivity. The turning-point came in 1907, when Modigliani met Paul Alexandre, a doctor who befriended him, took him under his wing and purchased some of his work. The banal paintings he had turned out in Montmartre were suddenly superseded by exceptional works, produced first in Montmartre ( Cellist, 1909), and then in Montparnasse. In Montparnasse, Modigliani started to move in artistic circles, meeting Chaim Soutine, Marc Chagall, Jules Pascin and others, all of whom lived and worked in the building in the Rue Vaugirard known as ‘La Ruche’ (‘the beehive’). Then, in the Cité Falguière, he met the Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi, who encouraged him to take up sculpture, which he did, between 1909 and 1913. In 1914, several dealers, including the erstwhile poet Léopold Zborowski and the collector Paul Guillaume, tried with little success to market Modigliani’s paintings. From 1914 to 1916, Modigliani was caught up in a tempestuous affair with the English poet and journalist Beatrice Hastings. In 1917, however, he met Jeanne Hébuterne at the Colarossi Academy, who became his constant companion and model, and who gave birth to their daughter Jeanne in 1918. In 1918 and 1919, Modigliani and Jeanne spent time in Nice on the Côte d’Azur but by 1920 he was suffering from tubercular meningitis. His friends, Kisling and the Chilean Ortiz de Zarate, brought him and a pregnant Jeanne back to Paris, where he died on January 20 1920 in the Hôpital de la Charité. His last words were reputed to be: ‘Cara Italia’. Modigliani’s brother, by this time a socialist member of parliament, telegrammed instructions to ‘bury him as befits a prince’. Jeanne Hébuterne, a budding twenty-year-old painter, killed herself and her unborn child on the day of Modigliani’s funeral by jumping to her death from a fifth-floor window. Modigliani’s first paintings were undistinguished portraits in the Impressionist manner. After moving to Paris in 1907, his early work was influenced by the Swiss-born lithographer Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso, the latter then in his ‘blue’ period. From the onset, Modigliani’s principal preoccupation was the human figure. After the artistic (and literal) limbo of Montmartre, when his output was confined to a few Expressionist-like paintings of street life, the theatre and the circus, Modigliani suddenly erupted on the scene in 1909 with Cellist, a robust, well-constructed and vividly coloured canvas that utterly exceeded all prior expectations. He had not taken part in the protracted debates that took place nightly in Picasso’s studio, but he had superficially assimilated the Cubist ideas developed by Picasso and Georges Braque. Above all, Modigliani had been influenced by African art, which was a key feature of the Cubist movement. He succeeded in treading a fine line between the coolly analytical Cubist approach and the all-too-common European perception of African art as a succession of exaggerated facial grimaces. It would appear that Modigliani had always been attracted to sculpture as a discipline. The friendly encouragement he received as of 1909 from Brancusi no doubt intensified his interest and reinforced his attempts to achieve a sustained simplicity of line and form. In 1910, he befriended the Russian artists Alexander Archipenko and Jacques Lipchitz, both of whom recorded Modigliani’s distaste for modelling in clay (which he referred to as ‘mud’), on the grounds that it degraded the art of sculpture. Like Brancusi, Modigliani believed in working directly, carving from wood in the case of two extant pieces, and from (sand)stone in others, with the exception of a few bronzes which were, presumably, modelled in clay before being cast into bronze. His sculpture was influenced by archaic and non-western cultures - early Graeco-Roman, African and Khmer - as well as heads carved on columns adorning the façades of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals (Modigliani rarely sculpted a rear view of his figures). Up to approximately 1912, his sculptures take the form of tall cylinders, usually with elongated heads and shallow relief indentations or projections to indicate the hairline, facial features and neck. He departed from this style only infrequently, most notably in a small number of pieces believed to have been sculpted in 1913, which are characterised by a compressed, cubistic format and shallower and less distinct features. Modigliani eventually abandoned sculpture, presumably because of his general health and circumstances, and possibly due to the fact that his sculptures sold for even less than his paintings. During the years that he devoted to sculpture, Modigliani is recorded as producing only thirty canvases, although after 1913 his sculpture became reflected in his painting. Following his Montmartre days, Modigliani’s work developed in both quantitative and qualitative terms, presumably helped by the relative stability of his relationship with Jeanne Hébuterne. The first paintings after his short-lived sculptural phase saw him revert briefly to Neo-Impressionist pointillism, followed by a episode marked by Cubism, which was mainly evident in portraits of friends and fellow artists living and working in Montparnasse: Henri Laurens; Juan Gris (1915); Jacques Lipchitz and his Wife; Chaim Soutine; Léopold Sauvage; Paul Guillaume; Max Jacob; Béatrice Hastings con Capello (all 1916); Mlle Modigliani (1917); Léon Bakst; Léopold Zborowski; Concierge’s Son; Adolescent (1918); Mademoiselle Lunia Czechowska; Madame Zborowska; Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (1919). A large number of other portraits exist among his drawings, most of which were executed impromptu in the street or cafés. These quickly drawn portraits often exhibit an urgency and surprising lucidity. Examples include Portrait of the Gypsy Painter Fabiano de Castro; André Salmon (1918); Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (1919); and Lada, Author; Mario, Composer (1920). Whatever his shortcomings, Amedeo Modigliani ranks as one of the 20th-century’s greatest painters of the female form. The bulk of his painted nudes were produced in 1915-1916 (prior to that date they were predominantly drawings), and are taken from every walk of life, such as a regular at a Montparnasse café, or a waitress at the soup kitchen where he ate his meagre meals. In each instance, he invested his models with an almost aristocratic hauteur. This is exemplified in a number of paintings (usually based on numerous prior drawings): Flower Girl; Blonde Lady; Sleeping Nude (1917); Blonde Nude; Young Woman; Maria (1918); Pink Nude; Reclining Nude; Nude on a Divan; Woman with a Fan (1919); and Young Woman in a Chemise; Reclining Nude (1920). Modigliani painted his subjects in elongated, elliptic ovals: the swell of a breast, the pronounced curve of the pelvis, the fullness of the thigh, the symmetrically oval face and the graceful arabesque of the body. Facial features are reduced to a bare minimum, with the eyes typically empty, like those of a statue. He employed colour as a constructive material in much the same way as stone in sculpture, juxtaposing muted pinks, ochres and pale browns against discreet background tones supplied by décor and garments. The overall effect is to yield a flat image devoid of chiaroscuro but which captures the essence of a subject. It has often been remarked that his women, with their elongated heads and long, graceful necks, generally tilted to one side, possess a melancholy beauty akin to that of the Siena Madonnas (reproductions of which Modigliani kept pinned on his studio wall), which accounts for Modigliani’s soubriquet as the ‘painter of sorrows’. From 1917, the majority of his nudes, characterised by a more pronounced elongation of the female body and lighter palette, were modelled by Jeanne Hébuterne and Luna Czechowska. Very few artists have been the subject of so many monographs and biographies as Modigliani; the selection appended to this entry indicates only some of the more important of these. Too much, perhaps, has been made of his life as an artiste maudit, of his ‘accursed’ yet colourful life rather than the quality of his work. Some critics have detected in him an artist of great and persistent intellectual curiosity; others emphasise that he was a ‘gentleman to the end’ and stress his physical frailty, ignoring the fact that this was an integral component of his creativity. More seriously, his posthumous fame amongst the public at large acts both for and against him, as if his subsequent popularity has become a yardstick of his artistic ability. The mannerism of his style ensures that a ‘Modigliani’ is instantly recognisable, but his success in adapting Cubism and African art to a language and palette that are entirely his own places him squarely at the heart of the modern movement. Amedeo Modigliani’s work has featured in numerous group exhibitions, including: Paris in 1908, when he showed his Jewess and three other canvases; the Salon des Indépendants in 1910; and the Salon d’Automne in 1912, where he exhibited examples of his sculpture. His posthumous inclusion in the 1922 Venice Biennale was regarded in Italy as a complete fiasco, prompting the critic Giovanni Scheiwiller to paraphrase Charles Baudelaire’s remark to the effect that, ‘we know that precious few will understand us, but that shall be sufficient’. In 1917-1918, the Berthe Weill Gallery organised a one-man show at the instigation of Zborowski but, on the order of the then chief of police, some of Modigliani’s sensual nudes were withdrawn on account of alleged indecency. On 20 December 1918, the Paul Guillaume Gallery exhibited several paintings by Modigliani alongside others by Matisse, Picasso and Derain. All other exhibitions of Modigliani’s work have been held since his death. They include those at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris (1922); Galerie Bing (Paris, 1925 and 1927); Marcel Benhelm Gallery (Paris, 1931); Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels, 1933); Kunsthalle Basel (1934); American-British Art Center (New York, 1944); Galerie de France (Paris, 1945 and 1949); Gimpels Fils Gallery (London, 1947); Cleveland Museum of Art (1951); Museum of Modern Art (New York, 1951); Cantini Museum (Marseilles, 1958); Palazzo Reale (Milan, 1958); Galerie Charpentier (Paris, 1958); Chicago Arts Club (1959); Cincinnati Art Museum (1959); Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Rome, 1959); Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1961); Perls Galleries (New York, 1963 and 1966); Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art (1968); Musée Jacquemart-André (Paris, 1970); Musée St-Georges (Liège, 1980); Tokyo Arts Centre (1980); Musée de l’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1970; a comprehensive exhibition of Modigliani’s sculptures...
Category

1910s Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pencil

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