Marevna (Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska)

Identification

Published titles

English: Marevna (Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska); Marevna.

Date

Parisot dates the work 1919 (no. 1/1919).

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

65 × 46 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right, in red.

Present location

Private collection, Mexico (unconfirmed).

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. Marevna Collection, Paris? (provenance as given by Christian Parisot).
2. Diego Rivera Collection, Paris? (provenance as given by Christian Parisot).
3. Léopold Zborowski, Paris (provenance as given by Christian Parisot).
4. Baixeras Collection, Paris (provenance as given by Christian Parisot).
5. Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1943, lot 88.
6. Private collection, Paris.
7. Private collection, Mexico (unconfirmed).

The sequence follows the published museum, sale, and catalogue record in this investigation. Gaps and uncertain transfers are marked as such. The early links in this chain rest on statements by Christian Parisot and have not been independently documented in this investigation.

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.

• Parisot cites Pfannstiel 1929, p. 31; the reference has not been independently verified in this investigation.
• Joseph Lanthemann and Christian Parisot, Modigliani inconnu: suivi de précisions et documents inédits, Brescia, Shakespeare and Company, 1978?
• Exhibition catalogue, Marevna et les Montparnos, Musées de la Ville de Paris, 1985, p. 3.
• Sylvie Buisson, exhibition catalogue, La scuola di Parigi e Modigliani, Graphis Arte / Musée de Montmartre, 1989, no. 2.
• June Rose, 1990.¹
• Christian Parisot, Modigliani, il segno, 1990, p. 12.²
• Christian Parisot, Modigliani, Lausanne, 1991.
• Christian Parisot, 1991 catalogue raisonné, no. 1/1919, as Marevna, dated 1919.³
• June Rose, 1991.⁴
• Christian Parisot, 1992, p. 135.⁵
• Christian Parisot, Témoignages, 1996.
• Christian Parisot, A. Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne e gli artisti di Montmartre e Montparnasse, Milan, Maiocchi, 2003.
• Christian Parisot, 2006.⁶
• Sylvie Buisson, Christian Parisot and Bruno Riposati, Modigliani e la spiritualità africana, Rome, 2007.

Exhibitions

• Paris, Musée Bourdelle, Marevna et les Montparnos, 1985, no. 3.
• Paris, Musée de Montmartre, Salle Modigliani, 1989, no. 2.
• Paris, Musée de Montmartre, Modigliani room, 1990?
• Tokyo, Museum of Art, Amedeo Modigliani et l’École de Paris, 1991, curated by Christian Parisot.
• Venice, Fondazione Cini, Modigliani e i suoi, 1999, curated by Christian Parisot?
• Bari, Castello Svevo, Amedeo Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne e gli artisti di Montmartre e Montparnasse, 2003, curated by Christian Parisot?
• Caserta, Belvedere Reale di San Leucio, same exhibition, 2003?
• Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Modigliani a Venezia, tra Livorno e Parigi, 2005?
• Bonn, Amedeo Modigliani: Ein Mythos der Moderne, 2009?
• Saint-Tropez, Musée de l’Annonciade, Amedeo Modigliani: Sans légende, 2010?
• Prague, Municipal House, Modigliani, 2010–11, curated by Christian Parisot.
• Moscow, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Paris School 1905–32, 2011, curated by Christian Parisot.
• Vitória, Palácio Anchieta, Modigliani — Imagens de uma vida, 2012, curated by Christian Parisot.
• 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.
• Mexico City, Museo San Carlos, El rostro de la mujer de los siglos XIV al XXI, 2012.

Notes

Not listed in the D’Atri papers.

Copies of certificates associated with the painting are recorded in this investigation: Jean Diego Rivera Jr. (grandson of Diego Rivera), 2005; Marika Rivera (daughter of Marevna and Diego Rivera), undated; Angela Ceroni (widow of Ambrogio Ceroni), 1980; André Schoeller (Hôtel Drouot), 1943; Mme Olange (identity not established in this investigation), 1965; Jeanne Modigliani, 1980; and Christian Parisot.

A 2005 condition report signed by Christian Parisot lists pigments as lead white, cadmium yellow, chromium orange, vermilion, red iron oxide, an organic black, and Prussian blue. This investigation notes that the dossier does not name the laboratory or the analyst.

Press coverage of the 2011 Pushkin exhibition reported that a collector who had considered buying the work commissioned tests from the Swiss Institute for Art Research and was told that some pigments were synthetic and post-1940. Christian Parisot has stated that the portrait is genuine and that he holds a document by Marevna recording that she posed for Modigliani. These claims are recorded here as published statements; they have not been independently verified in this file.

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.