Lunia Czechowska with a fan

Identification

Published titles

English: Lunia Czechowska with a fan / Woman with a fan. French: Le divan rouge.

Date

1919 in the principal catalogues. Patani extends the dating to 1919–20.

Medium

Oil on canvas, unconfirmed in this investigation.

Dimensions

100 × 69 cm (museum). Pfannstiel, Ceroni, Parisot, Patani and Wayne give 100 × 65 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at bottom right.

Present location

Stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (inv. AMVP 1680) in the early hours of 20 May 2010 (night of 19–20 May), with four other paintings. The canvas remains missing. A claim that the stolen works were later destroyed has not been independently verified.

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. Jonas Netter Collection, Paris (1926).
3. Bignou, Paris.
4. De Hauke & Co., New York (1929).
5. Alex Reid & Lefevre, London (1933).
6. Dr Girardin Collection, Paris, until 1953.
7. Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, gift of Dr Girardin, 1953; transferred to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1961 (inv. AMVP 1680).
8. Stolen in the early hours of 20 May 2010. Still missing.

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.

• André Salmon, 1926, pl. 37.¹
• Maud Dale, 1929.²
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929 presumed catalogue, p. 52.³
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, nos. 317 (Lunia Czechowska) and 330 (Woman with fan); the same canvas entered twice.⁴
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1958, no. 143.⁵
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 345.⁶
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 321.⁷
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 100.
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 14/1919.⁸
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 334.⁹
• Kenneth Wayne, 2002, p. 116, no. 39.¹⁰
• Simonetta Fraquelli, Royal Academy 2006, no. 51.¹¹

Exhibitions

• New York, De Hauke & Co., 1929, no. 28.
• Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago, 1929?
• London, Alex Reid & Lefevre, 1929.
• Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1933, no. 57.
• Basel, Kunsthalle, 1934, no. 49.
• Paris, Galerie de France, 1945–46, no. 37.
• Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1958, no. 86.
• Milan, Palazzo Reale, 1958, no. 43.
• Marseille, Musée Cantini, 1958, no. 35.
• Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, 1959, no. 45.
• Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1966, no. 68.
• Tokyo and Osaka, Daimaru, Love and Nostalgia for Montparnasse, 1979, no. 22.
• Liège, Musée Saint-Georges, 1980, no. 25.
• Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, 1980, no. 105.
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 100.
• Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1990, no. 107.
• Düsseldorf and Zurich, 1991, no. 86.
• Buffalo, Fort Worth and Los Angeles, Modigliani and the Artists of Montparnasse, 2002–03, no. 39.
• New York, The Jewish Museum, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, 2004–05.
• London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2006, no. 51.
• Moscow, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Meeting Modigliani, 2007.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 57, as Portrait of Lunia Tchechowska (femme à l’éventail), 100 × 65 cm, dated 1919, Paris; provenance Netter 1928 > Bignou 1929 > Reid & Lefevre 1933.

Pfannstiel published the canvas under two numbers.

Changes visible after cleaning or restoration are recorded in this investigation.

The theft of 20 May 2010, carried out by Vjeran Tomić, also removed other works from the same museum. Published police reporting stated that one alleged accomplice claimed the stolen canvases were later destroyed. That claim has not been independently verified in this investigation.

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.