Identification

Published titles

English: Marios Varvoglis; The Composer Mario Varvogli; Seated Man with Hat; Mario; Monsieur Mario.

Sitter

Marios Varvoglis (1890–1967), Greek composer, active in Paris.

Date

Usually given as 1919. MR dates the painting 1919–1920. Pfannstiel (1956) and Lanthemann describe it as the artist’s last work; that claim is a catalogue opinion, not a documented fact of execution.

Medium

Recorded as oil on canvas. The support has not been confirmed by a published technical report in the sources consulted.

Dimensions

Often given as 116 × 73 cm. Parisot records 116 × 65 cm; the D’Atri papers record 115 × 72 cm; the 1958 exhibition literature records 116 × 72.5 cm. Such discrepancies usually reflect sight size versus stretcher size, or a catalogue error.

Signature

Unsigned.

Present location

Private collection. This investigation does not name the present owner.

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. Early ownership before Léopold Zborowski is not documented in the sources consulted.
2. Léopold Zborowski, Paris.
3. Castaing Collection, Paris (recorded 1930).
4. Possibly again with Léopold Zborowski, Paris (recorded 1933 in some lists; the return is not securely documented).
5. Galerie Bing, Paris (1935).
6. M. Sobrinho Collection, São Paulo.
7. Meyer Collection, Zurich (recorded 1955; still cited 1977).
8. Christie’s, London, 28 March 1988, lot 28 or lot 25 (this investigation gives both numbers), sold for £4,400,000.
9. Private collection.

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.

• Arthur Pfannstiel, Modigliani. L’Art et la Vie, Paris, Éditions Seheur, 1929, p. 55 (catalogue présumé).¹
• Adolphe Basler, Modigliani, Paris, Éditions G. Crès, 1931, pl. 15.²
• Raffaello Franchi, Modigliani, Florence, Arnaud, 1944, pl. 31; 1947, pl. 48.³
• Giovanni Scheiwiller, Arte moderna italiana, no. 8, Amedeo Modigliani, Milan, Ulrico Hoepli, 1950, pl. 40.⁴
• Raffaele Carrieri, 12 opere di Amedeo Modigliani, Milan, Edizioni del Milione, 1950, p. 113.⁵
• Gotthard Jedlicka, Modigliani, Zurich, E. Rentsch, 1953, pl. 36.⁶
• Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Modigliani peintures, Paris, Éditions du Chêne, 1953, p. 8.⁷
• Jacques Lipchitz, Amedeo Modigliani, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1954, pl. 51.⁸
• Arthur Pfannstiel, Modigliani et son œuvre: étude critique et catalogue raisonné, Paris, Bibliothèque des Arts, 1956, no. 361, pl. 49, as Mario, dated 1920, described as the artist’s last work.⁹
• Ambrogio Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani: peintre; suivi des souvenirs de Lunia Czechowska, Milan, Edizioni del Milione, 1958, no. 153.¹⁰
• Claude Roy, Modigliani, Lausanne, Skira, 1958, p. 99.¹¹
• Franco Russoli, Amedeo Modigliani, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1958.¹²
• Franco Russoli, Amedeo Modigliani, Milan, Silvana Editoriale d’Arte, 1958.¹²
• Jeanne Modigliani, Modigliani sans légende, Paris, Gründ, 1961, no. 16.¹³
• Franco Russoli, Amedeo Modigliani, Milan, Fratelli Fabbri, 1963, no. 13.¹²
• Roger van Gindertael, monograph issued by a publisher given in this investigation as “Shop Libre Diffusion” (the imprint is uncertain), 1967, pl. 40, p. 66. Full bibliographic details remain incomplete in this investigation.
• Joseph Lanthemann, Modigliani, catalogue raisonné: sa vie, son œuvre, son art, Barcelona, Gráficas Condal, 1970, no. 420; likewise described as the last work.¹⁴
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, I dipinti di Modigliani, Milan, Rizzoli, 1970, no. 336, as Mario Varvogli, dated 1919.¹⁵
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Françoise Cachin, Tout l’œuvre peint de Modigliani, Paris, 1972, no. 336, as Mario Varvogli, dated 1919.¹⁵
• Carol Mann, Modigliani, London, Thames and Hudson, 1980, no. 147.¹⁶
• Luigi Carluccio, Jean Leymarie, Renata Negri, Franco Russoli and Yvonne Brunhammer, École de Paris, Paris, Rive Gauche, 1981, p. 221.
• Claude Roy, Modigliani, Paris, Nathan, 1985, p. 143.¹¹
• June Rose Castieau-Barrielle, La vie et l’œuvre de Amedeo Modigliani, Paris, ACR Édition, 1987, p. 215.¹⁷
• Christian Parisot, Modigliani, Livorno, Graphis Arte, 1988, p. 203.¹⁸
• Christian Parisot, Modigliani, il segno, Florence, Electa, 1990, p. 203.¹⁸
• Werner Schmalenbach, Amedeo Modigliani, Munich, Prestel, 1990, p. 131, no. 79.¹⁹
• Osvaldo Patani, Catalogo generale, Milan, Leonardo, 1991–94, no. 349, as The Musician Mario Varvogli, dated 1919–1920.²⁰
• Christian Parisot, Catalogue raisonné Modigliani, Livorno, Graphis Arte, 1991, no. 31/1919, size 116 × 65 cm, dated 1919, as Mario Varvoglis.²¹
• Christian Parisot, Modigliani, Paris, Pierre Terrail, 1992, p. 153.¹⁸
• Doris Krystof, Amedeo Modigliani: The Poetry of Seeing, Cologne, Taschen, 1996 and 2000, p. 87.²²
• Christian Parisot, Amedeo Modigliani, 1884–1920: itinéraire anecdotique entre France et Italie, Paris, ACR Édition, 1996.¹⁸
• MR (as Decrooq-MR), L’Ange au visage grave, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2002, p. 51, dated 1919–1920.²³
• Victoria Soto Caba, Modigliani: The Timeless Face, Madrid, Libsa, 2007.²⁴

Exhibitions

• Venice, Biennale, Sala XII degli Appels d’Italie, Mostra retrospettiva di Modigliani, curated by Lionello Venturi, 1930, no. 27.
• Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Modigliani: Retrospective Exhibition, 1933, no. 73.
• Basel, Kunsthalle, Amedeo Modigliani, 1934, no. 64.
• Bern, Kunsthalle, Modigliani, Campigli, Sironi, 1955, no. 32.
• Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Cent tableaux de Modigliani, 1958, no. 96.
• Milan, Palazzo Reale, Mostra di Amedeo Modigliani, curated by Franco Russoli, 1958, no. 48.
• Marseille, Musée Cantini, Modigliani, 1958, no. 38.
• Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, Modigliani, 1963, no. 46.
• London, Tate Gallery, Modigliani, 1963, no. 46.
• Frankfurt, Steinernes Haus, Amedeo Modigliani, 1963, no. 30.
• New York, Museum of Modern Art, European Master Paintings from Swiss Collections, 1976–77.
• Tokyo, National Museum, Modigliani, 1985, no. 121.
• Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, Modigliani, 1985.
• Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Amedeo Modigliani: Malerei, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, 1991, no. 90.
• Zurich, Kunsthaus, Amedeo Modigliani: Malerei, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, 1991, no. 90.

Notes

Listed as no. 73 in the D’Atri papers: 115 × 72 cm, dated 1920, provenance with Zborowski.

The original page of this investigation marked several fields as still being checked. The facts above are those already published; where the sources disagree, both readings are given.

A detail photograph in this investigation shows the drawing of the ears lying over the painted colour.