Still life with a Kisling portrait
Oil on canvas; 1918?
Identification
- Published titles
- English: Still life with a Kisling portrait.
- Date
- 1918, unconfirmed.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas.
- Dimensions
- 74.5 × 84 cm (size given in the Quattrocchi dossier).
- Signature
- Signed kisling at top right. Parisot states that both hands worked on the canvas.
- Present location
- Private collection, Israel?
Catalogue numbers
| Compiler | Number |
|---|---|
| Arthur Pfannstiel | NO |
| Joseph Lanthemann | ? |
| Ambrogio Ceroni | NO |
| Jeanne Modigliani | ? |
| Christian Parisot | YES |
| Osvaldo Patani | NO |
| Modigliani Project | ? |
| MR | NO |
| Modigliani Initiative | ? |
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
- Private collection, Israel?
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
- Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Modigliani and his circle, curated by Christian Parisot and Beatrice Hsieh, 2011.
- Vitória, Palácio Anchieta, Modigliani — Imagens de uma vida, curated by Christian Parisot, 2012.
- Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, same exhibition, 2012.
- São Paulo, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, same exhibition, 2012.
- Curitiba, Museu Oscar Niemeyer, same exhibition, 2012.
- Seoul, Hangaram Museum of Seoul Arts Center, Amedeo Modigliani: Legend of Montparnasse, 2015.
- Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, Modigliani, 2017, no. 39.
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 a table with fruit, a watermelon, a blue vase and a hanging portrait identified as Moïse Kisling. The report states that the portrait is not attributable to Modigliani; that the colours are taken directly from the tube; that the Kisling signature is elementary and therefore false; that the frame is stained to appear old; and that a carton-plume backing conceals the construction. 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.
Footnotes
- Isabella Quattrocchi, written conclusion for the Tribunale di Roma, published in the documentation assembled for this investigation as a translation of the court expert’s report.