Amedeo Modigliani

Dr. Paul Alexandre, Paris (acquired directly from the artist before 1914)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Venice, Palazzo Grassi; Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Montreal, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal (& travelling), Modigliani inconnu: Dessins de la Collection Paul Alexandre, 1993, no. 161, illustrated in the catalogue

Noël Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, Drawings from the Collection of Paul Alexandre, New York, 1993, no. 300, fig. 369, illustrated in colour pp. 100 & 383
Osvaldo Patani, Amedeo Modigliani, Catalogo Generale, Disegni 1906-1920, Milan, 1994, no. 744, illustrated p. 343

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount at the upper two corners, and floating in the overmount. The left edge is serrated. Apart from a small spot of discolouration to the upper right corner and a tiny diagonal crease to the lower left corner, this work is in overall very good condition. Colours: overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue, though the paper tone is slightly less pink in the original.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Amedeo Modigliani was introduced to Constantin Brancusi by Paul Alexandre soon after the Italian’s arrival in Paris. The two artists became firm friends and were often to be found at the heart of the extraordinary antics that took place at the Maison du Delta. It was Brancusi who found a studio for Modigliani on the rue Falguière in 1909 and, in 1911, helped him to set up his first Parisian exhibition (of which four contemporary photographs survive). Although they never worked in the same studio – they were too independent and there was simply not enough space – they saw each other often and, as Paul Alexandre recalled, liked to eat together regularly.

Brancusi was considerably older than Modigliani but, at the time the present portrait was executed, hardly better known. Both impoverished, they had rather distinct personalities; whereas Brancusi, who was from an extremely modest Romanian background, made money where he could – washing up in restaurants or unloading at the docks –, Modigliani was what Paul Alexandre described as a ‘born aristocrat’: “it was one of the paradoxes in his life: loving wealth, luxury, fine clothes, generosity, he lived in poverty if not misery. […] Neither could have been the master of the other: they were very different, but shared the qualities of total selflessness and single-mindedness in pursuit of their artistic goals.” (cited in Noël Alexandre, Modigliani inconnu, Bruges, 1993, p. 59).