Secret Modigliani

Woman with red hair

Oil on canvas — 1915

Date1915
MediumOil on canvas
Size40.5 x 36.5 cm
CollectionMusée de l' Orangerie, Paris
Signature"modigliani 1915"
Investigation15-34

woman with red hair amedeo modigliani

Identification

Title
English: Woman with red hair.
Notes: Fille rousse (Musée de l'Orangerie; Joconde/POP);Testa di donna dai capelli rossi (Ceroni); La Plébéienne coquette ou la fille rousse (an old album cited by the Orangerie).
Date
1915
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
40.5 x 36.5 cm
Notes: 37 x 31 (Parisot); 42 x 35.5 (Pfannstiel); 36 x 22 (Ceroni); 40,5 x 36,5 cm (Musée de l'Orangerie).
Signature
Signed "modigliani 1915." lower right
Noes: "S.D.B.DR. : modigliani 1915" (Musée de l'Orangerie)
Present location
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume, inv. RF 1960-46

Catalogue numbers

Compiler Number
Arthur Pfannstielno. 42
Joseph Lanthemannno. 62
Ambrogio Ceronino. 71
Jeanne ModiglianiYES
Christian Parisot27/1915
Osvaldo PataniYES
Modigliani Project?
MR?
Modigliani Initiative/AMDC?

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. Paul Guillaume
  2. Domenica Walter (Guillaume inheritance)
  3. Acquired by French state in 1957 (entered the museum in 1960)
  4. Musée de l' Orangerie, Paris, Inv. no. RF 1960-46

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.

Exhibitions

Notes

Where sources disagree, both readings are given. This is a working research page, not a catalogue raisonné.

The Musée de l’Orangerie confirms Fille rousse (Red-haired Girl), oil on canvas, 40.5 × 36.5 cm, signed and dated bottom right “modigliani 1915”, inventory RF 1960-46, Jean Walter–Paul Guillaume Collection.

guillaume house with the painting
Guillaume office with the painting (reconstruction)

Introduction

A young woman with reddish-blond hair faces the viewer, her head tilted very slightly. Her face is a broad oval with rosy cheeks, thin arched eyebrows, dark almond eyes, a long straight nose and a small, full red mouth. Dark bands fall on either side of her long neck towards a reddish garment at the lower edge. Behind her the wall is broken into rectangles of cream, white, brown, grey and deep red. At the lower right, in black, the painter has signed and dated the picture "modigliani 1915."
The painting belongs to the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, which holds it as part of the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection. It is one of the best-documented works in this part of Ceroni's catalogue. The museum publishes its provenance, a long exhibition history and a detailed bibliography, and the bibliography includes two old manuscript sources, an album and a binder kept by Domenica Walter, that preserve an early title and early measurements. These documents allow some of the discrepancies in the later catalogues to be explained.
This essay describes the painting closely, relates it to the museum's interpretation, and examines the documentary evidence, especially the varying dimensions and the uncertain dates of acquisition.

Composition and format

The format is almost square. The Orangerie gives the size as 40.5 × 36.5 cm, a proportion of about 1.11. The head fills most of the picture: the hair begins close to the top edge, and the shoulders are cut by the lower edge, so that the composition is a close-up of the face and neck rather than a bust.
The face is placed slightly to the left of centre, and the neck descends on a near-vertical axis. On either side the dark bands frame the neck and lead the eye down to the reddish shoulders. The background is divided by horizontal and vertical lines. At the upper left are pale rectangles of cream and white, below them a brown rectangle, and lower still a lighter brown panel. At the upper right is a deep red field, and below it a grey-beige area that occupies the right side of the picture.
The museum describes the effect precisely: "The composition plays on slight shifts and faint changes of angle that enliven the rigid forms and the hieratic depiction of the face, portrayed frontally." It adds that "The slight tilt of the head towards the right is counterbalanced by the slope down to the left of the horizontal lines in the background and the vertical on the left." In my reading of the reproduction, the tilt is very slight, and the most visible counterweight is the dark horizontal line at the left, which runs just above the level of the eyes and slopes gently downwards.

Line

The drawing is done in dark paint with a fine brush. The contour of the face is a continuous line from the temples down the cheeks to the chin, and a separate curve below the mouth marks the chin itself, a detail that gives the lower face a slightly doubled outline. The eyebrows are long thin arcs, and a line descends from between them along the right side of the nose, where it is reinforced by a greyish shadow. The nose is long and narrow, and ends in two small curves for the nostrils.
The eyes are almond shapes with dark upper lids, white sclera and dark irises. They are open and look out of the picture, which distinguishes this head from the blank-eyed heads of the same year discussed earlier in this series. The mouth is small and full, with a dark line between the red lips and a slight downward curve at the corners.
The hair is drawn with wavy dark lines over the reddish-blond paint, which describe the strands combed back from the forehead. The museum notes "the treatment of the red hair with wavy lines" as one of the features derived from sculpture. The ear on the right side is a small red-orange shape, outlined in dark paint, and on the left the ear is hidden.

Colour

The museum characterises the palette: "The portrait is painted in various shades of brown, also similar to the Cubist palette." The browns dominate the background, but the picture contains several stronger notes. The cheeks are a bright pink-red, the lips a deep red, and the ear a red-orange. The hair is a reddish blond, warmer on top. The deep red field at the upper right is the most saturated area of the background. The garment at the lower edge is a reddish brown.
Against these warm colours, the dark bands beside the neck are nearly black, and the pale rectangles at the upper left are almost white. The face is a pale flesh tone with greyish shadows, especially along the right side of the nose and the right cheek. The overall harmony is warm and earthy, with the pinks and reds of the face echoed in the background.

Facture

The paint is applied thinly in most areas. In the reproduction published by the Secret Modigliani page, the texture of the canvas is visible across the background and in the face. The pale rectangles at the upper left are painted with broad, dry strokes, and the deep red field at the upper right seems to be scumbled over a lighter ground. The face is built up with soft strokes that blend the pink of the cheeks into the paler flesh.
The dark bands beside the neck are painted with vertical strokes of black or very dark paint, in places dry enough to leave the canvas texture showing through. The hair is laid in with reddish strokes and then drawn over with dark wavy lines. In my reading, the handling is economical and fairly quick, with little reworking.

Figure and space

The museum observes that "The light, coming from the left, creates some depth". In the reproduction, the left side of the face is lighter and the right side has greyish shadows, so that the face has a discreet modelling. The French text describes this as "un discret modelé qui rompt avec la linéarité globale du tableau" (a discreet modelling that breaks with the overall linearity of the picture), which is stronger than the English version.
The space behind the figure is shallow. The museum suggests that the geometric background is "possibly a display of paintings". The French text says "peut-être une cimaise", which I would translate as perhaps a picture rail or hanging wall. The English and French versions therefore differ slightly: the French suggests the wall where pictures are hung, the English the pictures themselves. In my reading, the pale rectangles at the upper left could be the backs or edges of canvases, but the image does not allow a firm identification.
The dark bands beside the neck are ambiguous. They could be hair falling behind the shoulders, though they are darker than the reddish hair on top, or shadows on the wall. In my reading, they function primarily as a frame that isolates the neck and the face from the background.

Iconography and sitter

The sitter is not identified. The earliest title cited by the Orangerie, from an old album, is "La Plébéienne coquette ou la fille rousse" (the coquettish plebeian woman, or the red-haired girl). The bibliography attributes it to an anonymous album, with a number 215 and the name Routhier. The title suggests a model of modest social standing, but it is not known who gave it.
Later titles describe the sitter only by her hair. Ceroni's 1965 catalogue, as quoted by the Orangerie, gives "Tête de femme (La fille rousse)", Lanthemann "Tête de femme rousse", and Parisot "Portrait de femme rousse". The museum's inventory title is Fille rousse.
The museum relates the painting to Modigliani's return to painting: "In 1915, having given up sculpture, Modigliani returned to painting, although not without difficulty." It adds that "Red-Haired Girl is one of a series of portraits, in which he adopts a very free Cubist interpretation", and that "The stylisation of the face, the treatment of the red hair with wavy lines, the simplification of the volumes all come from his experiments in sculpture and from the series of Cariatides".

Comparisons

Antonia. The Orangerie's Antonia (Ceroni no. 59), discussed earlier in this series, also sets a frontal head against a background of geometric planes. Antonia, however, has eyes without pupils, while the eyes of Fille rousse have dark irises and look out at the viewer.
Woman with Velvet Ribbon. The Orangerie's Femme au ruban de velours (Ceroni no. 63) shares the Guillaume provenance and the date 1915, but its eyes are slits and its background a landscape. The difference suggests how varied Modigliani's portraits of 1915 were.
Woman with Loose Hair. The next essay but one in this series examines Ceroni no. 73, Fillette à la chevelure, also from the Guillaume collection, which shares the broad face, the rosy cheeks and the small full mouth. Its background, however, is divided into a green field and a terracotta one, not into rectangles.
L'Enfant gras. Ceroni no. 74, at the Brera, shares the reddish hair and the frontal pose, but its eyes are blank and its surface more heavily worked.

Provenance and exhibitions

The Orangerie gives the provenance as the collection of Paul Guillaume, Paris; the collection of Mme Jean Walter, Paris, until 1959; acquired from Mme Jean Walter in 1959 with the help of the Société des Amis du Louvre, with the approval of the sale dated 21 February 1959; the Musée du Louvre; and the Musée de l'Orangerie from 1977. The Secret Modigliani page gives Paul Guillaume, Domenica Walter, and acquisition by the French state in 1957, with entry to the museum in 1960.
The Orangerie lists many exhibitions, beginning with the presentation of the Walter–Guillaume collection at the Orangerie in 1966 and including New York, the Jewish Museum, 2004; Rovereto, 2010–2011; Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2016; Budapest, 2016; and Helsinki, 2016–2017. Its bibliography also lists the Charpentier exhibition of 1958, no. 28, as "Collection particulière". The Secret Modigliani list of the Charpentier exhibition gives no. 28 as "Fille rousse P. C. 1915 41 x 36". The Secret Modigliani page on the work also notes that the painting is included in the reconstruction of the Guillaume collections at the Orangerie, and reproduces a photograph of it.

Discrepancies

  1. Dimensions. The Orangerie gives 40.5 × 36.5 cm; Parisot 37 × 31 cm, Pfannstiel 42 × 35.5 cm and Ceroni 36 × 22 cm, according to the Secret Modigliani page; the Charpentier catalogue 41 × 36 cm, according to the Secret Modigliani list. The album cited by the Orangerie gives "0m36 x 0m32", and Domenica Walter's binder gives "Fille rousse 36 x 32". In my reading, Ceroni's 36 × 22 cm is most likely a misprint for 36 × 32 cm, the measurement in the two early documents cited by the Orangerie. The difference between 36 × 32 cm and 40.5 × 36.5 cm may reflect a measurement of the visible image within a frame rather than of the whole canvas, but this is conjecture.
  2. Acquisition and entry. The Orangerie gives acquisition in 1959 and entry to the Orangerie in 1977; the Joconde notice gives "1957 acquis ; 1960 entrée matérielle", and the Secret Modigliani page 1957 and 1960. The inventory number RF 1960-46 is consistent with 1960 as the year of inventory.
  3. Hoog's catalogue number. The Secret Modigliani page and the Joconde notice give Hoog no. 60; the Orangerie gives no. 63 in the third edition of 1990.
  4. Ceroni 1965. The Secret Modigliani page cites Ceroni 1965 at p. 171; the Orangerie gives "n° 171, p. 42".
  5. Location in Ceroni. Ceroni's 1965 catalogue, as quoted by the Orangerie, gives "Paris, Collection privée"; his 1970 caption gives the Musées Nationaux, with the donation of the Jean Walter–Paul Guillaume collection.

Technical analysis

No technical examination of this painting was found in the sources opened. The Orangerie page gives the medium as oil on canvas and does not mention any technical study.
Support. The size is close to square. The Burlington Magazine article by Annette King, Nancy Ireson, Simonetta Fraquelli and Joyce H. Townsend, vol. 160, no. 1380 (March 2018), notes that "French canvas sizes were standardised in the nineteenth century", and also that most of the original secondary supports in its study were "rudimentary fixed-corner strainers, typical of the time". Whether this canvas is of a standard size, and whether its strainer is original, cannot be established from the sources opened.
Drawing. The same article reports that the preparatory drawing in the works studied "varied from clean graphite lines to ones made with thin brushes in paint of varying colours". The visible contours of Fille rousse are in dark paint applied with a fine brush. Infrared examination would be needed to show whether there is any underlying drawing.
Surface. The canvas texture visible in the reproduction suggests a thin paint layer, perhaps over a light ground. Tate Papers, no. 35, by Anaïs Genty-Vincent et al., describes works by Modigliani with earlier paintings beneath the visible surface. Whether this canvas was reused could be determined only by X-radiography. These observations are comparative and do not describe this work.

Conclusion

Fille rousse is a compact, almost square portrait in which a frontal head with open, dark eyes is set against a background of geometric planes. Its warm browns and reds, its light modelling and its framing dark bands produce a calm and somewhat enigmatic image. The museum relates it to Modigliani's sculpture and to Cubism, and the visual evidence supports both connections.
The documentation of the work is unusually rich, but it is not free of conflict. The early measurements of 36 × 32 cm in the album and the Walter binder help to explain Ceroni's 36 × 22 cm, the dates of acquisition differ between 1957 and 1959, and the numbering of Hoog's catalogue is given in two forms. These discrepancies concern the documentation rather than the painting itself, which remains securely signed, dated and preserved in a public collection.

Museum, auction and exhibition sources

  1. Musée de l'Orangerie, Fille rousse, RF 1960 46 (English and French pages, with provenance, exhibitions and bibliography), https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en/artworks/fille-rousse-196297 and https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/fr/oeuvres/fille-rousse-196297
  2. Ministère de la Culture, POP, Joconde notice 00000089485, Fille rousse, https://pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/00000089485

Technical literature (comparative)

  1. Annette King, Nancy Ireson, Simonetta Fraquelli and Joyce H. Townsend, "The Modigliani Technical Research Study. An introduction to Modigliani's materials and techniques", The Burlington Magazine, vol. 160, no. 1380 (March 2018) (comparative)
  2. Anaïs Genty-Vincent et al., "Works by Modigliani that have Paintings beneath the Visible Surface", Tate Papers, no. 35, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/35/works-by-modigliani-that-have-paintings-beneath-the-visible-surface (comparative)

Sources that could not be opened

The album and Domenica Walter's binder cited by the Orangerie; Hoog's catalogue of the Walter–Guillaume collection; the Charpentier (1958), Seibu (1968) and later exhibition catalogues; Ceroni's catalogues beyond the online caption and plate title; any technical study of the painting by the Orangerie or the C2RMF.

Cited but not independently consulted

Pfannstiel, catalogue presume Modigliani. L'Art et la Vie, Seheur, Paris, 1929, p. 7 - no. 4; San Lazzaro, Modigliani peintures, Les Éditions du Chêne, Paris, 1953, p. 4; Pfannstiel, Modigliani et son oeuvre, etude critique et catalogue raisonne, bibliotheque des arts, Paris, 1956 - no. 42; Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani : dessins et sculptures ; avec suite du catalogue illustre des peintures, Edizioni del Milione, Milano, 1965, p. 171; Lanthemann, Modigliani, catalogue raisonné: sa vie, son oeuvre, son art, G. Condal, Barcelona, 1970 - no. 62; Ceroni & Piccioni, Il dipinti di Modigliani, Rizzoli, Milano, 1970 - no. 71; Castieau-Barrielle, La vie et l'oeuvre de Amedeo Modigliani, Editions ACR, Paris, 1987, p. 140; Parisot, Catalogue Raisonee Modigliani, Graphis Arte, 1991 no. 27/1915; Patani, Catalogo Generale, Leonardo, Milano, 1991–1994; Hoog, Catalogue of the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection, Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris 1987-1990 - no. 60; Klein, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, The Jewish Museum, 2004-2005, p. 116, pl. 31; Soto Caba, Modigliani, The timeless face, Libsa, Madrid, 2007. Titles are given as the page gives them, without the footnote digits it attaches to them.

Footnotes

  1. Arthur Pfannstiel, Modigliani. L’Art et la Vie, preface by Louis Latourette, Paris, Seheur, 1929 (presumed catalogue).
  2. Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Modigliani, Paris, Éditions du Chêne, 1953.
  3. Arthur Pfannstiel, Modigliani et son œuvre, étude critique et catalogue raisonné, Paris, Bibliothèque des Arts, 1956.
  4. Joseph Lanthemann, Modigliani, catalogue raisonné: sa vie, son œuvre, son art, Barcelona, G. Condal, 1970.
  5. Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, I dipinti di Modigliani, Milan, Rizzoli, 1970.
  6. Thérèse Castieau-Barrielle, La vie et l’œuvre de Amedeo Modigliani, Paris, ACR, 1987.
  7. Christian Parisot, Catalogue raisonné Modigliani, Livorno, Graphis Arte, 1991.
  8. Osvaldo Patani, Amedeo Modigliani: catalogo generale, Milan, Leonardo, 1991–94.
  9. Mason Klein, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, New York, The Jewish Museum / Yale University Press, 2004.
  10. Victoria Soto Caba, Modigliani: The Timeless Face, Madrid, Libsa, 2007.