“Reclining Nude” 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, where 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 art dealer commissioned this series of nudes and lent Modigliani the use of his apartment, supplied models, painting materials, and paid him for his work.
The paintings from this arrangement were different from his earlier depictions of friends and lovers. They were funded by Zborowski, his art dealer, either for his collection or 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. Eventually, Modigliani’s nudes reaffirm and reinvigorate the nude as a subject of modernist art.
Amedeo Modigliani
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.
Things to Know: Amedeo Modigliani
- Modigliani painted the human figure almost exclusively and created at least 26 reclining female nudes.
- His nickname, Modi, rhymes with the French word “maudit,” meaning “accursed,” a name acquired because of his lifestyle.
- Modigliani died of tuberculosis and complications due to substance abuse and hard living.
- Jeanne Hébuterne, pregnant with Modigliani’s second child, committed suicide the day after Modigliani’s death, which added to Modigliani’s legacy.
- Simplified, elongated oval faces, gracefully sculptured noses, and simplified mouths highlight the artist’s interest in African masks.
- Modigliani applied his paint with short stabbing actions, manipulating it while wet so that the marks of his brush are visible, as are the scratched lines made with the end of his brush to highlight the model’s hair.
- Modigliani’s explicit depiction of pubic hair in his nudes, a taboo in Salon paintings of the period, was highly controversial and led to the police closing his exhibition in 1917 on the grounds of indecency.
- Modigliani loved poetry and recite Dante and other poets from memory. His favorite poet was remembered as a ‘diseased genius’ and a ‘loner,’ reflecting Modigliani’s unpredictable moods and status as an Italian Jew in Paris.
Reclining Nude
- Title: Reclining Nude
- Artist: Amedeo Modigliani
- Created: 1917
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 23 7/8 x 36 1/2 in. (60.6 x 92.7 cm)
- Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
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” by Amedeo Modigliani
Modigliani’s ‘Reclining Nude’ Expected to Sell for More Than $100 Million
A Virtual Tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
MET European Paintings Collection
- “Pygmalion and Galatea” by Jean-Léon
- “Saint Jerome as Scholar” by El Greco
- “Portrait of Juan de Pareja” by Diego Velázquez
- “Camille Monet on a Garden Bench” by Claude Monet
- “View of Toledo” by El Greco
- “The Musicians” by Caravaggio
- “The Death of Socrates” by Jacques-Louis David
- “The Harvesters” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- “Young Woman Drawing” by Marie-Denise Villers
- “The Grand Canal, Venice” by J. M. W. Turner
- “The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog)” by Claude Monet
- “Madame Cézanne in a Red Dress” by Paul Cézanne
- “The Fortune Teller” by Georges de La Tour
- “The Allegory of Faith” by Johannes Vermeer
- “Garden at Sainte-Adresse” by Claude Monet
- “Wheat Field with Cypresses” by Vincent van Gogh
- “The Repast of the Lion” by Henri Rousseau
- “The Horse Fair” by Rosa Bonheur
- “Two Men Contemplating the Moon” by Caspar David Friedrich
Amedeo Modigliani’s ‘Nu couché’
- “Boy with a Greyhound” by Paolo Veronese
- “A Windy Day on the Pont des Arts” by Jean Béraud
- “Sunday at the Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Paris” by Jean Béraud
- “The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning” by Camille Pissarro
- “The Sorrow of Telemachus” by Angelica Kauffman
- “Lukas Spielhausen” by Lucas Cranach the Elder
- “The Siesta” by Paul Gauguin
- “Venus and Adonis” by Titian
- “La Grenouillère” by Claude Monet
- “Diana the Huntress” by Giampietrino
- “Ovid among the Scythians” by Eugène Delacroix
- “Whalers” by J. M. W. Turner
- “Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
- “Imaginary Gallery of Ancient Roman Art” by Giovanni Paolo Panini
- “Isle of the Dead” by Arnold Böcklin
- “Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley” by Paul Cézanne
MET Modern and Contemporary Art Collection
- “Reclining Nude” by Amedeo Modigliani
- “Improvisation 27 (Garden of Love II)” by Wassily Kandinsky
- “Jeanne Hébuterne” by Amedeo Modigliani
- “The Card Players” by Paul Cézanne
- “Bathers” by Paul Cézanne
MET Greek and Roman Art Collection
- Statue of a Kouros
- Amathus Sarcophagus
- Mycenaean Terracotta Female Figures
MET Egyptian Art Collection
- The Temple of Dendur
- The Sphinx of Hatshepsut
- William the Faience Hippopotamus
MET Asian Art Collection
- Luohan – Yixian Glazed Ceramic Sculpture
- Pillow with Landscape Scenes – Zhang Family Workshop
- Jar with Dragon
- Fine Wind, Clear Morning by Katsushika Hokusai
MET Ancient Near Eastern Art Collection
- Sumerian Standing Male Worshiper
- Head of a Beardless Royal Attendant – Eunuch
- Human-Headed Winged Bull (Lamassu)
MET American Wing Collection
- “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emanuel Leutze
- “Portrait of Madame X” by John Singer Sargent
- “Mother and Child” by Mary Cassatt
- “Fur Traders Descending the Missouri” by George Caleb Bingham
- “The Gulf Stream” by Winslow Homer
- “The Parthenon” by Frederic Edwin Church
- “The Aegean Sea” by Frederic Edwin Church
- “Alexander Hamilton” by John Trumbull
- “Lady at the Tea Table” by Mary Cassatt
- “Ellen Mary Cassatt” by Mary Cassatt
MET Islamic Art Collection
- Blue Qur’an
- Marble Jar of Zayn al-Din Yahya Al-Ustadar
- The Damascus Room
MET Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas Collection
- Benin Ivory Mask
- African Face Mask – Kpeliye’ e
- Sican Funerary Mask – Peru
- Ceremonial Axe – Papua New Guinea
MET European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Collection
- “Hercules the Archer” by Antoine Bourdelle
- “Orpheus and Eurydice” by Auguste Rodin
- “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” by Antonio Canova
- “The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer” by Edgar Degas
- “The Burghers of Calais” by Auguste Rodin
- Spinario (Boy Pulling a Thorn from His Foot) by Antico
Modigliani painting fetches US$157 million at auction
MET Medieval Art Collection
- “The Last Supper” by Ugolino di Nerio
- Plaque with the Journey to Emmaus and Noli Me Tangere
- Doorway from the Church of San Nicolò, San Gemini
- Lion Aquamanile – North German
- Equestrian Knight Aquamanile – Lower Saxony
MET Drawings and Prints Collection
- Album of Tournaments and Parades in Nuremberg
- “Canvassing for Votes” by William Hogarth
- “Christ and the Woman of Samaria” by Rembrandt
- Fine Wind, Clear Morning by Katsushika Hokusai
MET Costume Institute Collection
- Bodice
- Cardinal Cape
- Doublet
MET Arms and Armor Collection
- Blade and Mounting for a Sword (Katana)
- Double-Barreled Flintlock Shotgun
- Anthropomorphic Celtic Sword with Scabbard
MET Photograph Collection
- Loie Fuller Dancing
- Sala Delle Statue, Vatican
- Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War
MET Musical Instrument Collection
- Ming-Dynasty Pipa
- Grand Piano
- Bass Fluegel Horn in B-flat
Explore
- Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
- The MET Cloisters
- Met Breuer
- Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET
Amedeo Modigliani’s ‘Nu couché’ | 2015 World Auction Record
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“To do any work, I must have a living person … I must be able to see him opposite me.”
– Amedeo Modigliani
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Photo Credit 1) Amedeo Modigliani [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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