Identification

Published titles

English: Reclining nude on the left side; Reclining nude on white.
French: Nu couché sur le côté gauche; Le grand nu.

Date

1917. Lanthemann dates the work 1916.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

90.5 × 146.4 cm. Patani and Parisot: 89 × 146 cm. The 1958 exhibition: 89.5 × 145 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at bottom left.

Present 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. Galerie Weill, Paris (1917)?
3. Léopold Zborowski, Paris (sold 1929).
4. Netter Collection, Paris (1933).
5. Sale, Christie’s, New York, Impressionist and Modern Art, 4 November 2003, sale 1299, lot 29 (estimate USD 20,000,000–25,000,000; sold USD 26,887,500).
6. Private collection, USA.
7. Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 14 May 2018, lot 18 (sold USD 157,159,000).
8. Private collection.

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.

• André Salmon, 1926, pl. 22.¹
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929, p. 48.²
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 231.³
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1958, no. 120.⁴
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 149 (dated 1916).⁵
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 184 (89 × 146 cm; dated 1917).⁶
• Angela Ceroni, 1989, p. 59, no. 11.⁷
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 38/1917.⁸
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 198.⁹
• Nancy Ireson and Simonetta Fraquelli, 2017, pp. 132–133 and cover.¹⁰

Exhibitions

• Paris, Berthe Weill Gallery, 1917.
• Paris, Galerie Marcel Bernheim, 1931, no. 15 (cover; titled Grand nu couché, dated 1918).
• Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, 1931.
• Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1933, no. 15 (dated 1916); Basel, Kunsthalle, 1934, no. 7.
• Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1952, no. 114; Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 1954, no. 40.
• Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1958, no. 63 (dated 1918); Marseille, Musée Cantini, 1958, no. 21 (dated 1918).
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 53.
• Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage, 1994, no. 19.
• London, Tate Modern, 2017–18.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 15, dated 1916, titled Grand nu couché, 89 × 146.5 cm.

This investigation records a high-gloss varnish layer and cites published statements that Modigliani varnished some nudes to imitate the surface of old-master paintings. Later varnish layers have also been identified on other works. No conservation report for this canvas is published in this investigation.

This investigation records holes at the corners of the support. Two corners are recorded; the remaining holes are described as probably covered by restoration.

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