Bust of the Burgundian woman

Identification

Published titles

English: Bust sketch of the Burgundian woman / Chubby girl / The good Burgundian / Young girl.

Date

1918? MR has dated the canvas 1919 in recent publications. A private MR dossier for David Lévy Fine Art, Masterpiece London 2019, dated it 1918. Lanthemann dated it 1917.

Medium

Oil on canvas? This investigation notes borders that may indicate textured cardboard or paper.

Dimensions

54.8 × 37.8 cm (MR: 55 × 38 cm; Lanthemann: 61 × 38 cm, format 12M).

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Private collection, Switzerland? Last named public appearance: David Lévy Fine Art, Masterpiece London, 2019.

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. Roger Dutilleul Collection, Paris.
3. Gérard Masurel Collection, Paris.
4. Private collection, Switzerland.
5. David Lévy Fine Art stand, Masterpiece London, 2019.

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.

• Alexander Watt, “Notes from Paris,” Apollo 23, no. 134 (February 1936), p. 108.
• UNESCO, Peinture 1860 à 1949, Paris, 1949.
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 308, as The Burgundian woman, dated 1918 (this investigation also assigns Pfannstiel no. 308 to the Minneapolis three-quarter canvas in another file).¹
• Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Modigliani-Portraits, Paris, Hazan, 1957, pl. 13, dated 1917.
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 228, dated 1917, 61 × 38 cm.²
• MR, Luxembourg 2002, pp. 392–393.³
• Christian Parisot, 2006, no. 33.⁴
• Victoria Soto Caba, 2007.⁵

Exhibitions

• Paris, Galerie Montaigne, Exposition rétrospective des œuvres de Modigliani, 1920, no. 27.
• Paris, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Peintres instinctifs, 1935–36, no. 78.
• Paris, Galerie de France, 1945–46, no. 38, dated 1919.
• Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, 2002, no. 105.
• Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2003, no. 70.
• New York, Helly Nahmad Gallery, 2005, no. 12.
• Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, 2006, no. 33.
• Tokyo / Osaka, Modigliani et le primitivisme, 2008, no. 51.
• Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2008.
• Bonn, 2009, no. 141.
• Hong Kong, Fine Art Asia, 2010 (dated 1919?).
• Villeneuve d’Ascq, LaM, 2016.
• Budapest, Hungarian National Gallery, 2016.
• Helsinki, Ateneum, 2016–17.
• London, David Lévy Fine Art, Masterpiece London, 2019.

Notes

This investigation marks the work as not located in the D’Atri papers. The canvas is absent from Ceroni and Patani.

The 2019 Masterpiece London catalogue stated that authenticity had been confirmed by MR and that the work would be included in the forthcoming Institut MR catalogue raisonné. It also recorded a request for the Albertina exhibition Modigliani and Picasso — the Primitivist Revolution (then planned for 2020–21, curated by MR).

An X-ray published by MR is recorded as showing an earlier portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne beneath the present image. This investigation compares that underdrawing with the 1919 Jerusalem seated Jeanne.

This investigation records a drawn ear painted over the colour.

This investigation records the canvas in the Dutilleul collection about 1953 and treats this bust as a related study for the unsigned three-quarter Minneapolis canvas (1918-w-5), while publishing an overlay of differences.

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.