Victoria (Portrait of a girl)

Identification

Published titles

English: Victoria / Portrait of a girl.
French: Mademoiselle Victoria.

Date

1917? Lanthemann, Ceroni, Parisot and Patani date the work 1916; Pfannstiel 1956 and Klein date it 1917; MR has published both 1916 (Luxembourg 2002) and 1917 (Tokyo 2008).

Medium

Oil on canvas (reused support).

Dimensions

80.6 × 59.7 cm. D’Atri papers: 81 × 59.5 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Tate, London, inv. N04723. Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop, 1933.

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. James N. Rosenberg, New York (acquired 1921–22?).
3. New Gallery, New York, 1922.
4. Paul Reinhardt, New York.
5. Netter Collection, Paris? (Pfannstiel provenance).
6. Paul Guillaume, Paris?
7. Galerie Bignou, Paris.
8. Reid & Lefevre, London (1927).
9. C. Frank Stoop Collection, London (acquired 1928; until 1933).
10. Tate, London, inv. N04723, Stoop bequest 1933.

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.

• Henry McBride, “Modigliani,” Arts III (1923), p. 53, repr. p. 54 as Portrait.
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929, p. 21.¹
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 136 (dated 1917).²
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1958, no. 178.³
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 170 (dated 1916).⁴
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 118 (dated 1916).⁵
• Ronald Alley, 1981, p. 528.⁶
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 17/1916.⁷
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 121 (dated 1916).⁸
• MR, 2002, pp. 244–45 (dated 1916).⁹
• Mason Klein, 2004, p. 125, pl. 40 (c. 1917).¹⁰

Exhibitions

• New York, New Gallery, Paintings by Derain, Modigliani, Matisse and Others, 1922, as Tête de femme.
• New York, Grand Central Art Galleries, Modern Italian Art, 1926, no. 70, as Portrait, lent by Paul Reinhardt.
• London, Lefevre Galleries, Paintings by Modigliani, 1929, no. 2, as Mademoiselle Victoria.
• London, Tate Gallery, Modern Italian Art, 1950.
• Tokyo and Osaka, Daimaru, Love and Nostalgia for Montparnasse, 1979, no. 8.
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Modigliani, 1981, no. 34.
• Tokyo, National Museum, 1985, no. 64; Nagoya, same exhibition.
• Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1990, no. 53.
• Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, 2002, no. 48 (dated 1916); Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2003, no. 35.
• New York, Toronto and Washington, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, 2004–05.
• Tokyo, The National Art Center, Modigliani et le primitivisme, 2008, no. 33 (dated 1917); Osaka, no. 21.
• Bonn, Amedeo Modigliani: Ein Mythos der Moderne, 2009, no. 86 (c. 1917).
• London, Tate, Modigliani, 2017.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 144, 81 × 59.5 cm, dated 1916, provenance Netter → Reid & Lefevre → Stoop, London, 1928.

This investigation notes that MR’s 2002 Luxembourg catalogue names Guillaume as first owner, while the 1921–22 purchase from Zborowski by James N. Rosenberg is documented.

This investigation records holes at the corners of the support. This investigation records that the canvas is reused and that the holes may belong to the earlier painting.

Tate technical study, published in connection with the 2017 exhibition: X-radiography shows another Modigliani portrait beneath Victoria. The underlying composition corresponds in pose, scale and perspective to a 1915 Beatrice Hastings before a fireplace.

This investigation records that a yellow varnish layer has been removed.

This investigation records a drawn ear painted over the colour.

Tate confirms Portrait of a Girl, c. 1917, oil on canvas, 80.6 × 59.7 cm, inv. N04723, bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop, 1933. The museum title does not use the name Victoria.

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.