Femme nue vue de dos stands as an exceptionally rare and evocative drawing within Modigliani’s oeuvre: the upright standing nude seen from behind. Whilst the work links to a number of Modigliani’s motifs, this precise format is very unusual. The verticality and suggestion of crossed arms speak to Modigliani’s preoccupation with the caryatid, the elaborate and decorative hair look forward to the heads both sculptural and drawn, whilst the background positions the work as one inspired by the theatre and performers. Its early date of 1909 means, like Female Nude Asleep, with Standing Male Figure (Anna Akhmatova) (fig. 1) also seen mostly from behind though in the more typical reclining pose, it is precursor to the later nudes for which Modigliani is so famed. Noel Alexandre has written of XXX
There are four related large-scale nudes which complement each other – the first two more modest and closer to portraits, the others very ‘undressed’ – and anticipate by several years the paintings of reclining nudes that would make Modigliani famous. Everything that has been written about ‘the sensuality which radiates from the large reclining nudes of 1917’ could equally well apply to these last two. The beautiful, drowsy heads are deliberately cropped by the edge of the sheet at the level of the forehead and the hair, the better to show off the long bodies in their full nakedness.

The present work is sensual and decorative and yet the ornamentation of pearl-like dashes across her back seem not only to trace the outlines of feminine curves but to foreground the geometry that underpins the composition, elevating balance and harmony, the search for a fundamental simplicity and the beauty of timeless forms.