Modigliani Reconsidered
In Modigliani Reconsidered, we present essays that are based on recently discovered information about provenance, exhibitions, or literary references, and which shed new light on Modigliani’s oeuvre. New facts often raise new questions and our goal is to foster continued scholarly dialogue. It is our hope that the Modigliani Initiative will serve as a platform for researchers, across various disciplines, who are engaged with scholarship on the artist, to reconsider how this new information might alter what we know about Modigliani and his work.
Reconsidering the Portrait of a Mysterious Redhead
Finding lifetime references to Modigliani’s paintings is critical to establishing a body of work that is unquestionably authentic. This is especially significant for paintings not included in Ambrogio Ceroni’s Modigliani catalogue of 1970, considered by the art market to be the most authoritative record of the artist’s oeuvre. Before acquiring its current title, Portrait of a Woman, which is not in Ceroni’s catalogue, was known by a variety of names, including Buste de femme rousse au corsage noir; La femme aux yeux verts; and La femme au médaillon.
Reconsidering a Portrait Not Included in Ceroni
Tracing Modigliani’s paintings to lifetime events (he died on January 24, 1920) is critical to establishing a body of work that is unquestionably authentic. This is especially significant for paintings excluded from the most widely accepted Modigliani catalogue, compiled by Ambrogio Ceroni and published in 1970. Three of the works exhibited in Peintres d’Aujourd’hui can be plausibly identified by their descriptive titles but the fourth, Femme au voile (Woman with a veil), has remained a mystery as no painting by the artist is currently known by this title.