“ There is only one painter of the modern nude.” ANDRÉ SALMON 98 SOTHEBY’S 100 SOTHEBY’S A MASTERWORK BY MODIGLIANI THE PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTOR 18 Ⴜ຤ AMEDEO MODIGLIANI 1884 - 1920 Nu couché (sur le côté EXHIBITED gauche) Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Modigliani, 1933, no. 15 (titled Grand nu couché and dated 1916) Signed Modigliani (lower left) Oil on canvas Basel, Kunsthalle, Rétrospective Modigliani, 1934, no. 7 (dated 1916) 35¼ by 57¾ in.; 89.5 by 146.7 cm Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Cinquante ans de peinture française dans les Painted in 1917. collections particulières de Cézanne et Matisse, 1952, no. 114 (titled Nu couché) Estimate Upon Request Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Le Nu à travers les Ages, 1954, no. 40 (titled Grand nu couché) Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Cent tableaux de Modigliani, 1958, no. 63, illustrated PROVENANCE in the catalogue (titled Grand nu) Léopold Zborowski, Paris (acquired from the Marseille, Musée Cantini, Modigliani, 1958, no. 21, illustrated in color in the artist) catalogue (titled Grand nu and dated 1918) Jonas Netter, Paris (acquired by 1926) Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Amedeo Modigliani 1884-1920, Private Collection, Paris (by descent from the 1981, no. 53, illustrated in color in the catalogue above) Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage, Les Peintres de Zborowski: Modigliani, Private Collection, United States (acquired Utrillo, Soutine et leurs amis, 1994, no. 19, illustrated in color in the catalogue from the above and sold: Christie’s, New York, London, Tate Modern, Modigliani, 2017-18, n.n., illustrated in color in the November 4, 2003, lot 29) catalogue and on the cover (titled Nude) Acquired at the above sale 102 SOTHEBY’S LITERATURE Antoine Salmon, Modigliani: sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, 1926, illustrated, pl. 22 (titled Nu couché and dated 1918) Mark Schwarz, Modigliani, Paris, 1927, illustrated pl. VI Arthur Pfannstiel, Modigliani, L’Art et la vie, Paris, 1929, catalogued p. 48 (with inverted dimensions) Oskar Schürer, “Die Kunst geht nach brot” in Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, vol. 67, Darmstadt, 1930-31, illustrated p. 237 Siego Taguchi, Modigliani, Tokyo, 1936, illustrated pl. 18 Jean Cocteau, Modigliani, Paris, 1950, illustrated in color pl. 15 (titled Nu couché) Paolo d’Ancona, Modigliani, Chagall, Soutine, Pascin, Some Aspects of Expressionism, Milan, 1952, illustrated in color p. 22 Arthur Pfannstiel, Modigliani et son oeuvre, Paris, 1956, no. 231, p. 129 Jean-Albert Cartier, Modigliani nus, Paris, 1958, illustrated pl. 8 Ambrogio Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani, Milan, 1958, no. 120, illustrated in color pl. 120; catalogued p. 61 Geza Csorba, Modigliani, Budapest, 1969, illustrated pl. 32 Joseph Lanthemann, Amedeo Modigliani 1884-1920, Catalogue raisonné: sa vie, son oeuvre complet, son art, Barcelona, 1970, no. 149, illustrated p. 198; catalogued p. 117 (titled Nu couché, vu de dos and dated 1916) Above Fifteen Francs a day. That was the stipend the sitters of these works, he certainly did not Ambrogio Ceroni & Leone Piccioni, I dipinti di Modigliani, Milan, 1970, no. 184, East pediment of the Leopold Zborowski, Modigliani’s dealer, have physical distance. They dominate their illustrated p. 97; illustrated in color pl. XXXII & a detail illustrated in color on the Parthenon, Athens, 438-432 B.C. off ered him in 1917 to paint a series of nudes. space, devoid of setting beyond a pillow or cover With this sum Modigliani created several of chair, fi lling the frame with stretching hands Jean Dalevèze, Modigliani, Lausanne, 1971, illustrated in color on the title page the most stunning paintings in the history of and feet, forearms and calves literally off of Modigliani (exhibition catalogue), Liège, Musée Saint-Georges, 1980, illustrated art, reimagining the nude for the Modern era. the edges of the canvas. Sometimes the model p. 39 Nu couché is the masterpiece of that series. clasps a chemise or sheet around her, often Douglas Hall, Modigliani, Edinburgh, 1984, illustrated in color pl. 37 Modigliani’s models were paid fi ve francs putting more on display than the drapery Thérèse Castieau-Barrielle, La Vie et l’oeuvre de Amedeo Modigliani, Paris, to pose in an apartment just above Zborowksi’s conceals. Modigliani’s women feel strong, real, 1987, illustrated in color p. 177 own at 3 rue Joseph Bara, tucked between the and substantial. Their nudity is self-assured Cimetière du Montparnasse and the Jardin du and proud, not cloaked in myth or allegory. Angela Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani: Les nus, Düdingen, 1989, no. 11, illustrated Luxembourg. These models, draped in sheets, Nu couché is the largest painting in color p. 59 perched on chairs, reclining on sofas or beds, Modigliani every painted, and the only one Werner Schmalenbach, Amedeo Modilgiani, Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings were relatively anonymous; Modigliani did not of his horizontal nudes to contain the entire (exhibition catalogue) Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf & paint his paramours en déshabille. While the fi gure within the canvas. The sitter looks Kunsthaus, Zurich 1991, illustrated p. 51 artist may have had emotional distance from confi dently back over her right shoulder, the Osvaldo Patani, Amedeo Modigliani, catalogo generale: Dipinti, Milan, 1991, no. 198, illustrated in color p. 208 Christian Parisot, Modigliani catalogue raisonné: peintures, dessins, aquarelles, Livorno, 1991, vol. II, no. 38/1917, illustrated in color p. 174; catalogued p. 315 Anette Kruszynski, Amedeo Modigliani-Portraits and Nudes, New York, 1996, illustrated in color p. 97 Victoria Soto Caba, Modigliani el rostro intemporal, Madrid, 2008, illustrated in color pp. 320-21 104 SOTHEBY’S IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART EVENING SALE 105 slope of her profi le echoing the negative space was painted, a woman’s right to vote was Above left Above idiom evident in the present painting. His Aside from a veritable who’s who of the PABLO PICASSO, DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ, along the edges of her torso. Combined with supported in places as distant as New York Nude on a red background, The Toilet of Venus (The was an aesthetic gleaned from the artistic more bohemian artistic circles in Paris, the fi gures’ richly modulated fl esh tones and State and the Russian Republic. In short order 1906, oil on canvas, Musée Rokeby Venus), 1647-51, precedents of Italian Renaissance and Modigliani would also seize upon chances to Nu couché de l’Orangerie, Paris The National Gallery, dark-hued background, , delivers a the United Kingdom and United States as a London Mannerist painting, the linear simplicity of fi nd other sitters – though the opportunities uniquely modern vision of the greatest subject whole would follow suit, and a vast array of Above right African carvings and the earth-toned palette for unpaid models were few and far between. BARNABA DE MODENA, in Western Art. legal rights including control over property, Virgin and Child, circa and geometric modelling of Cubism. All of Simonetta Fraquelli refl ected on Modigliani’s This series of nude canvases are some of wages and child support continued to be made 1370, panel, Musée du these infl uences can be identifi ed in Nu couché, portraiture output: “Modigliani’s portraits Louvre, Paris the most joyful and unabashedly erotic images into law throughout much of Europe. painted by the artist in 1917. and single-fi gure paintings are among the in the history of art. They are deceptively Modigliani began painting nudes in 1908, The majority of Modigliani’s output was most memorable and popular images of pioneering; they assimilate diverse visual with four examples marked, it two cases, based in portraiture, which, more often than the early twentieth century…. They possess cultures from across the globe and across the by their rigidity (Ceroni nos. 10 & 11) and in not, depicted those who surrounded him: an archetypal quality that sets them apart centuries while incorporating the avant-garde the others by a unresolved move towards fellow artists Jacques Lipchitz, Diego Rivera, from the art of his contemporaries in Paris of his contemporaries. These paintings also expressionism (Ceroni nos. 7a & 8). A few Chaim Soutine, Juan Gris, poets including in the fi rst two decades of the last century. represent the new woman of World War I, years later from 1911-12 he executed nudes in Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob, lovers from Like the artist’s nudes, they testify to an Paris; a woman whose embrace of her own the stylized forms of caryatids (Ceroni nos. Beatrice Hastings to Jeanne Hébuterne enduring fascination with the human form sexuality alludes to the increasing power and 32-39), but it was only after he abandoned and patrons including Paul Alexandre, Paul and physiognomy. Modigliani’s mastery lies autonomy of women. The year Nu couché sculpture in 1914 that he developed the unique Guillaume and Léopold & Hanka Zborowski. in his ability to retain the essential likeness 106 SOTHEBY’S IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART EVENING SALE 107 of his sitters while couching that likeness in 35 nudes, some two-thirds feature models Above Above Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan penury. Her funds were very limited… but she JEAN AUGUSTE Sleeping Hermaphroditus, his own circumscribed vocabulary of forms” reclining along the horizontal axis, while the DOMINIQUE INGRES, 2nd century A.D., Roman Museum of Art respectively; one further prided herself on her fairness…. No wonder (Modigliani and His Models (exhibition remaining stand or sit in a vertical format. La Grande Odalisque, 1814, copy of Hellenistic