Reclining nude (Céline Howard)

Identification

Published titles

English: Nude / Céline Howard / Reclining nude / Grand nude.

Date

1918, unconfirmed.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

65 × 100 cm (size given in the Quattrocchi dossier).

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right in red.

Present location

Private collection? (a Geneva location has been named)

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. Céline Howard (until 1940, and then until 1976?).
2. Guy Vincent (described in this investigation as a former agent of the Office of Strategic Services).
3. Crédit Agricole Indosuez (in lieu of debts).
4. Paul Quattrocchi, New York (a 20 percent share from Guy Vincent).
5. Joseph Guttmann, New York.
6. Private collection? (a Geneva location has been named)

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.

• No book-length catalogue entry is recorded in this investigation.

Exhibitions

• Bonn, Amedeo Modigliani: Ein Mythos der Moderne, 2009, no. 107.
• Prague, Municipal House, Modigliani, curated by Christian Parisot, 2010–11.
• Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Modigliani and his circle, 2011.
• Vitória, Palácio Anchieta, Modigliani — Imagens de uma vida, 2012.
• Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, 2012.
• São Paulo, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, 2012.
• Curitiba, Museu Oscar Niemeyer, 2012.
• Seoul, Hangaram Museum of Seoul Arts Center, 2015.
• Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, Modigliani, 2017, no. 33.

Notes

Not recorded in the D’Atri papers.

The painting was seized by the police after a report by C. Pepi. Prof. Isabella Quattrocchi, consultant to the Tribunale di Roma for works of art, issued a written conclusion that the work is false. The notes below report that published conclusion and do not add a further opinion.

The Quattrocchi report describes an oil on synthetic canvas on a Greek-cross stretcher; a female nude assembled from graphic studies; a false signature at top right, described as uncertain, grainy and repeated in two colours on still-fresh paint; and a gilded frame of Eastern manufacture. Micro-scale analysis attached to the CTU report (Marie-Pierre Etcheverry and Tiziana Mazzoni) is cited as not revealing substantial anachronistic elements; the report nevertheless recommended examination by the Carabinieri RIS. The published conclusion is that the work is grossly false.

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