Amedeo Modigliani

Dr Paul Alexandre, Paris (acquired from the artist)
Thence by descent

Venice, Palazzo Grassi; London, The Royal Academy of Arts (travelling exhibition also passing through Cologne, Madrid, Bruges, Tokyo, Luxembourg, New York, Montreal & Rouen), Modigliani inconnu : Dessins de la Collection Paul Alexandre, 1993-96, no. 289

Noël Alexandre, Modigliani inconnu, Témoignages, documents et dessins inédits de l'ancienne collection de Paul Alexandre, Paris, 1993, no. 154, illustrated pl. 206, p. 266
Osvaldo Patani, Amedeo Modigliani, Catalogo Generale, Disegni 1906-1920 con i disegni provenienti dalla collezione Paul Alexandre (1906-1914), Milan, 1994, no. 905, illustrated p. 384

Executed on thin wove paper, not laid down, floating in the mount, fixed at the upper corners. The left edge is deckled. The sheet has yellowed with age and there are scattered tiny spots of foxing. There are media marks and smudges inherent to the artistic process and a 1cm nick to the lower edge. There are two 0.3 and 0.2 cm brown burn spots, one with an associated loss, dating from the artist's era. Otherwise this work is in good overall condition.
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"Undoubtedly, Modigliani's most powerful drawings are the drawings of a sculptor" (François Bergot, 'L'Ange au visage grave', in Noël Alexandre, Modigliani inconnu, Paris, 1993, p. 8). 

It is unquestionably in his drawings of caryatids that Modigliani's predilection for sculpture is most powerfully expressed. These idealised female figures, conceived as architectural columns, became an obsession for the artist during his early years in Paris, to the extent that he wished to create a monumental series of stone caryatids. His deteriorating health limited the scope of his production in this medium, and he instead devoted himself to a two-dimensional exploration of the theme, executing over 60 drawings and studies.

This superbly vertical Tête de profil gauche au chignon perfectly illustrates his ambition to create drawings that would match his sculptural output.  "The urgent desire to stylise which drove him to purify his forms, to evoke them through sensual arabesques which remain as far removed from intellectualism and cerebralism as the odalisques of Ingres, necessarily placed Modigliani in the same vein as the Italian Old Masters, in a paragon quest to combine painting with its eternal rival, sculpture.”  (Francois Bergot, "L'Ange au visage grave", in Noel Alexandre, op. cit., p. 9)