Identification

Published titles

English: Woman with a necklace; The beautiful Irish girl; Young girl with a necklace.

Date

The canvas is signed and dated 1918 at bottom right. Lanthemann dates his no. 225 to 1917.

Medium

Oil on canvas (unconfirmed).

Dimensions

Not recorded in this investigation.

Signature

Signed modigliani / 1918 at bottom right.

Present location

Private collection (unconfirmed). Last named holder in this investigation: Edinburgh Inv. Ltd / Michael D. Dingman.

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 (sold 1922).
2. Mr X, Lyon (Charles Meysson?).
3. Galerie de Lyon (Alfred Poyet?).
4. Mr Y (Fritz Ernst Binswanger?), acquired 1931–32.
5. Galerie David et Garnier, Paris (invoice 1958).
6. Edmond Cohen-Tenoudji, Paris.
7. Perls Galleries, New York.
8. Michael D. Dingman, New York (acquired for USD 1.44 million).
9. Consigned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989–90, then returned to Dingman.
10. Private collection (Edinburgh Inv. Ltd), New York (unconfirmed).

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.

• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 225, as Young girl with necklace, dated 1917. Lanthemann identifies the sitter with the model of his no. 224 (Ceroni no. 209).¹

Exhibitions

• No exhibition is recorded in this investigation.

Notes

Not listed in the D’Atri papers.

In June 2011 MR told Dingman / Edinburgh Inv. Ltd that he would inspect the painting again before a final decision. After that inspection he stated that he could not decide because more information was still required, and named three criteria: scientific analysis (reported as positive), provenance (information missing from before the Cohen purchase), and comparison of overall appearance with other Modigliani works. In or about July 2011 he informed the owners that the painting would remain under further investigation.

The subsequent civil complaint and press coverage are a matter of public record (Art Market Monitor, 12 February 2013; verified complaint filed in that dispute). This page records those published statements only.

Lanthemann links the sitter to another portrait known as the beautiful Irish girl.

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

The 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.