“Nude on a Divan” by Amedeo Modigliani (National Gallery of Art, DC)

“Nude on a Divan” by Amedeo Modigliani is one of the dozens of nudes created by Modigliani in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces and figures that echo precursors such as Titian, Goya, and Velázquez. However, Modigliani’s figures differ significantly in the level of raw sensuality they transmit. Unlike depictions of female nudes from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, in which female nudity is couched in mythology or allegory, this series of paintings are without any such context, highlighting the painting’s eroticism.

The several dozen nudes that Modigliani painted between 1916 and 1919 constitute many of his best-known works. Modigliani’s dealer and friend commissioned this series of nudes. He also lent Modigliani the use of his apartment, supplied models, painting materials, and paid him for his work. The paintings from this arrangement were, therefore, different from his previous depictions of friends and lovers. These paintings were funded by Zborowski, his art dealer, either for his own collection or with an eye to their commercial potential.

The nude, which depicts an anonymous model, is one of a series of nude artworks that caused a scandal when they were first exhibited at the Modigliani’s only solo show in Paris in 1917. A crowd formed outside the gallery window, where one of the nudes was openly on display, and police demanded the immediate closure of the exhibition. Ultimately, Modigliani’s nudes reaffirm and reinvigorate the nude as a subject of modernist art.

Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France and is known for portraits and nudes. Modigliani moved to Paris in 1906, where he came into contact with prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso. From 1909 to 1914, he devoted himself mainly to sculpture in which the linear form of African sculpture and the figurative Renaissance painters informed his work. His main subject was portraits and full figures of humans, both in the images and in sculptures. Later he painted the human figure almost exclusively and created many reclining female nudes. During his life, Amedeo Modigliani had little success and died aged 35 in Paris.

Nude on a Divan

Title: Nude on a Divan
Artist: Amedeo Modigliani
Created: 1918
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60.2 × 91.7 cm (23.7 × 36.1 in)
Museum: National Gallery of Art

Amedeo Modigliani

Name: Amedeo Clemente Modigliani
Born: 1884 – Livorno, Tuscany, Italy
Died: 1920 (aged 35) – Paris, France
Nationality: Italian
Notable work:
- Nude (The Guggenheim, NY)
- Reclining Nude (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)
- Nude on a Divan (National Gallery of Art, DC)
- Nude on a Blue Cushion (National Gallery of Art, DC)
- Le Grand Nu (Museum of Modern Art, NY)
- Seated Nude (Courtauld Gallery, London)
- Seated Nude (Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu)
- Portrait of Dr. Paul Alexandre (Yamazaki Mazak Museum of Art)
- Jeanne Hébuterne
- Adrienne (Woman with Bangs)

A Tour of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

“Ginevra de’ Benci” by Leonardo da Vinci
“A Young Girl Reading” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
“Small Cowper Madonna” by Raphael
“The Alba Madonna” by Raphael
“Nude on a Divan” by Amedeo Modigliani
“Nude on a Blue Cushion” by Amedeo Modigliani
“Saint Jerome” by El Greco
“The Houses of Parliament, Sunset” by Claude Monet (National Gallery of Art, DC)
“Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)” by Winslow Homer
“Madame Moitessier” by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Adrienne (Woman with Bangs) by Amedeo Modigliani
“Watson and the Shark” by John Singleton Copley
“The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries” by Jacques-Louis David
“The Boating Party” by Mary Cassatt
“Interior of the Pantheon, Rome” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in “Chilpéric” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
“Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
“A Dutch Courtyard” by Pieter de Hooch
“The Mother and Sister of the Artist” by Berthe Morisot
“New York” by George Bellows
Self-Portrait by John Singleton Copley
“Self-Portrait” by Benjamin West
Masterpieces of the National Gallery of Art

Reflections

Modigliani is famous for his portraits and nudes. Why did he not painted his most frequent portrait subject, Jeanne, as a nude?
What influence did African sculpture have on Modigliani’s portraits, with their elongated face and highly simplified features?

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“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
– Leonardo da Vinci

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Photo Credit 1) Amedeo Modigliani [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons