Head of a brunette (the chocolate maker)

Identification

Published titles

English: Head of a brunette / The chocolate maker / Woman bust.

Date

1917 (other published dates: 1916–17 and 1918).

Medium

Oil on canvas? This investigation notes that the dimensions do not match a standard French canvas format and may indicate cardboard.

Dimensions

46 × 40 cm?

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Unknown location / private collection?

Catalogue numbers

Legal note on MR: This investigation has not had access to MR’s catalogue raisonné; all research here is based on open sources, publications and exhibitions. By no means has that catalogue been copied at any point. Modigliani Project and Modigliani Initiative are marked YES when the work is published or otherwise recorded by those projects, even if no catalogue number is assigned; otherwise the field is marked ?.

Provenance

1. Léopold Zborowski, Paris.
2. Jonas Netter Collection, Paris (in 1928?).
3. Bignou Collection, Paris.
4. Alex Reid & Lefevre, London, June 1938.
5. Private collection, Paris.
6. A second published chain (Bernheim-Jeune): Hôtel des Ventes, Paris, 23 June 1928; Bernheim-Jeune; sold to Alex Reid & Lefevre, 5 December 1928, 50,000 FF.

The sequence follows the published museum, sale, and catalogue record in this investigation. Gaps and uncertain transfers are marked as such.

Selected bibliography

Book-length publications are marked with a footnote giving a full citation. Exhibition catalogues appear in both this list and the exhibition list when this investigation recorded them in both places. Where this investigation listed a long run of secondary mentions, only the principal catalogues and museum or sale references are retained here.

• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929 presumed catalogue, p. 24.¹
• Giovanni Scheiwiller, Arte moderna italiana no. 8, Milan, Hoepli, 1936, pl. 12, as Testa di donna, Alex Reid & Lefevre, dated 1917.
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 146, as Tête de femme brune — la chocolatière, dated 1917.²
• Guy Patrice and Michel Dauberville, 2015, no. 45.³

Exhibitions

• London, Reid & Lefevre, 1929, no. 8.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 146, as La Chocolatière, 45.5 × 40 cm; provenance Netter, Paris, 1928 > Bignou, Paris.

This investigation records a drawn ear painted over the colour.

This investigation records the same model as several related canvases, including this investigation’s 1917-w-113.

Published documentation for this file is thin. Catalogue numbers, exhibitions and bibliography are given only where this investigation recorded them.

The original documentation assembled for this investigation marked several fields as still being checked. The facts above are those already published; where sources disagree, both readings are given.