Amedeo Modigliani
1884 - 1920
Standing Female Nude Figure, Hands held Behind 1908
Black crayon, stamped with the Paul Alexandre collection mark.
16 ¾ x 10.5 inches; 43 x 26.7cms;
Provenance: Dr Paul Alexandre, to whom it was given by Modigliani.
By descent to the present owner.
Reproduced: Full page ‘The Unknown Modigliani’ by Noël Alexandre,
Page 313 [no. 274], Mercatorfonds, 1993.
Exhibited: Drawings from The Collection of Paul Alexandre
Venice, Palazzo Grassi, September 1993 – January 1994.
Tokyo, The Ueno Royal Museum,1994.
Bruges, Centro d’Arte San Giovanni, 1994.
Montréal, The Museum of Fine Art, 1996.
Rouen, Musée des Beaux Arts, 1996.
Modigliani, Beyond The Myth May 2004 - May 2005 at:
The Jewish Museum, New York.
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
The Phillips Collection, Washington.
St Tropez, Musée L’Annonciade, Modigliani, July – 18th October 2010.
This drawing is among the most powerful and lyrical of the 1908 studies reproduced in Noël Alexandre’s The Unknown Modigliani. It relates to two of Modigliani’s first known nude paintings, both painted in 1908. Nu Assis above. And Nu au Chapeau below.
The curve of the body and positioning of the left leg give the drawing its particular strength and grace. Its movement and stillness.