In 1915 Modigliani took up painting again after nearly five years dedicated to making sculpture. His return to painting led to the creation of some of the most celebrated portraiture of the early twentieth century. Rendered in tones of green, ochre, black and burgundy, Madame Dorival was one of the canvases he produced after this long hiatus, and it possesses a number of qualities for which Modigliani is best known. The well-rounded, three-dimensional format is strongly reminiscent of his earlier sculptural work, but the sitters barely indicated pupils and neatly delineated nose and lips prefigure the sensuous, refined aesthetic of his final years. Held in the same private collects ion since 1966, Madame Dorival represents the best qualities of Modigliani’s work and features a provenance replete with some of the most famed collects ors of the twentieth century.
Right: FIG. 2 CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI, MUSE, 1912, MARBLE, SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK © Succession Brancusi - All rights reserved (ARS) 2018
In the paintings of 1915 and 1916, the rich variety of Modigliani’s influences is at their most apparent. Inspired by the art of his native Italy, and by the avant-garde artists in Montparnasse, Modigliani forged a uniquely evocative style which is particularly characteristic of his portraiture. Modigliani’s personal interpretation of African and other non-Western aesthetic sources, was compounded by his understanding of Picasso’s Cubism, which had taken its own impetus from similarly exotic places (see fig. 1). Although Modigliani never completely subscribed to the syntax of Cubism, he adopted some of its stylistic devices such as the geometric simplification and break-up of forms, and was close to the sculptors Ossip Zadkine and Jacques Lipchitz, both of whom were strongly influenced by the movement. Even more important perhaps was his relationship with Brancusi, whom he met in 1909 (see fig. 2). Brancusi not only encouraged him to carve directly in stone, but also gave the most convincing demonstration of how influences from the widest possible range of sources—archaic, Asian and African—could be transformed into a personal idiom of the greatest originality.
Furthermore, it was Modigliani’s brief but significant stint as a sculptor that left an enduring impression on his work (fig. 3). The hieratic qualities of the carved, stone heads, and their indebtedness to primitive artifacts, were ably transferred onto canvas once he had laid down his chisels. Discussing this development, Werner Schmalenbach writes: “The early portraits—those painted in 1915 and 1916, immediately after the sculpture period—are marked by a considerable degree of structuring applied to the human face. They are simplified and are endowed to a greater or lesser degree with articulation and rhythm, by the formal manipulations to which they are subjected. Often this formal process has taken place in the pencil studies that precede the paintings. Characteristic features are asymmetry and, as we have seen, an emphasis on the nose, whether linear or stereometric; closed or hatched-over eyes; and added lettering. The faces threaten to veer out of control, but the cause is never expressive, always formal, and never prevents the emergence of a characteristic and individual expression” (Werner Schmalenbach, Amedeo Modigliani. Painting. Sculptures. Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1991, p. 31).
Center: FIG. 5 THE PRESENT WORK
Right: FIG. 6 AMEDEO MODIGLIANI, MADAME DORIVAL, 1916, OIL ON CANVAS, KUNSTMUSEUM, BASEL (ON PERMANENT LOAN FROM THE IM OBERSTEG FOUNDATION)
Indeed while the first oils executed in 1915 such as Madame Pompadour, which immediately follow this period of three dimensional carving, feature elongated but rigidly vertical tubular necks, by 1916 an overall softening was occurring (see fig. 4). It was at this t.mes that the characteristic tilt of the head began to fill his portraiture, including in the present work. This led toward, in 1917, the fully mannerist treatment of the gracefully over-exaggerated and swan-like curve of the neck and the corresponding tilt of the head. In the present canvas of 1916, Madame Dorival begins this graceful arch (see fig. 5). This shift of perspective can be seen even between the two depictions of Madame Dorival; in the Kunstmuseum canvas the face has become rounder and fuller, a relaxation is seen around the figure’s brow, lips and cheeks, but the neck still stands rigid and nearly vertical (see fig. 6). In the present work the greater delicacy of the facial features continues and flecks of green undertone in the face and neck, combined with the new tilt of the head atop its perch, signal the flowering of Modigliani’s final artistic expression that would dominate the few years left of his short life.
The aesthetic influences of Modigliani's portraits from 1915-16 are eclectic and drawn from a variety of cultural sources. An Italian by birth, Modigliani revered the formal portraits of the Italian Renaissance and Mannerist painters, and his compositions incorporate much of the stylization favored by these great artists of the past (see fig. 7). His own experience with carving elongated heads in limestone in the early 1910s had a profound impact on his aesthetic, as did the influence of the Parisian avant-garde. Living in Montparnasse exposed him to an assortment of creative figures, including the Cubist painters, Picasso and Léger, and the important writers and intellectuals of early twentieth century Paris. The combined impact of all of these influences was profound, and allowed Modigliani to create some of the most richly conceived portraits in the history of Modern art. Kenneth Wayne has written the following about the vast pool of personal interests from which the artist formed his own unique style: "Of the many distinguished artists who worked in Montparnasse, Modigliani had perhaps the widest range of discernible sources: Florentine and Venetian Renaissance painting, the nude tradition, portraiture, African art, Cambodian art, Egyptian art, Roman art, Greek art, medieval sculpture the sculpture of Michelangelo, direct carving, contemporary life, popular art/café culture, the kabala and Jewish Mysticism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, and fantasy art, not to mention French, German, Italian, British, and American literature. These wide interests made him the ultimate Montparnassian sophisticate and quintessential figure of this extraordinary t.mes and place" (Ken Wayne, Modigliani & The Artists of Montparnasse (exhibition catalogue), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2002-03, p. 17).
Right: FIG. 9 AMEDEO MODIGLIANI, JUAN GRIS, 1915, OIL ON CANVAS, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
The majority of Modigliani’s output was based in portraiture, which, more often than not, depicted those who surrounded him: fellow artists Jacques Lipchitz, Diego Rivera, Chaim Soutine, Juan Gris, poets including Jean Cocteau and Max Jacob, lovers from Beatrice Hastings to Jeanne Hébuterne and patrons including Paul Alexandre, Paul Guillaume and Léopold & Hanka Zborowski (see figs 8 & 9). Aside from a veritable who’s who of the more bohemian artistic circles in Paris, Modigliani would also seize upon chances to find other sitters—though the opportunities for unpaid models were few and far between. Simonetta Fraquelli reflected on Modigliani’s portraiture output: “Modigliani’s portraits and single-figure paintings are among the most.mes morable and popular images of the early twentieth century…. They possess an archetypal quality that sets them apart from the art of his contemporaries in Paris in the first two decades of the last century. Like the artist’s nudes, they testify to an enduring fascination with the human form and physiognomy. Modigliani’s mastery lies in his ability to retain the essential likeness of his sitters while couching that likeness in his own circumscribed vocabulary of forms” (Exh. Cat., London, Royal Academy of Arts, Modigliani and His Models, 2006, p. 31).
Madame Dorival has a storied provenance, included in some of the most notable collects ions of the twentieth century. The sitter for the present work, Madame Dorival (née Blanche Antonia James of Philadelphia), was the wife of famed French actor Édouard Lamarchand, more familiarly known as Dorival. A member of the l’Odéon until 1914 and then the Comédie-Française from 1917 until his death in 1939, Dorival moved within the creative circles of Paris. His dressing room was noted for having works of art strewn about by painters such as Dufy, Utrillo and van Dongen while his large collects ion ranged from the aforementioned artists to Édouard Manet, Ingres, Renoir and Robert Delaunay. He owned at least six works by Modigliani, including the two portraits of his wife and a portrait of Juan Gris, now in the collects ion of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (see fig. 9). Unlike fellow actors such as Sacha Guitry, who enjoyed creating a scene at the most renowned auction rooms of the day, Dorival preferred to discover living artist or uncover works from prior generations in unlikely corners, such as Manet’s La Partie de croquet à Paris, which he found buried in an antique shop in Bern and purchased for sum of 40 francs (see fig. 10). His passionately constructed collects ion was inherited by Mme Dorival on his death in 1939. She in turn maintained much of the collects ion in Paris throughout the second world war until her death in 1946.
After leaving the Dorival collects ion, Mme Dorival’s portrait remained in Paris in the hands of Léon Zamaron, a police commissioner and noted collects or of ontemporary art. Like Dorival, Zamaron acquired works by the artists living and working around him including Utrillo, Soutine, Modigliani, Suzanne Valdon and the like. In the early 1950s the present work had entered a very different kind of collects ion—that of Helena Rubinstein. By the 1940s Helena Rubinstein was the world's richest woman, having single-handedly established an eponymous multi-million dollar cosmetics company that transformed the industry. As the world's first self-made female millionaire, Rubinstein was a pioneer among captains of industry, achieving a level of success that was hitherto unimaginable for a woman. Rubinstein’s astounding art collects ion ranged from African and Oceanic art to sculptures by Constantin Brancusi to paintings by Picasso, Miró, Léger, Matisse, Braque, Chagall, Degas and Dalí, to list just a few. Her lavish homes in Paris and New York were veritable art galleries in which Madame Dorival can be seen installed (see figs. 11 & 12). After Rubinstein’s death in 1965, property from her Estate, including the present work, was sold at auction in 1966 where it was acquired by the family of the present owners, nearly sixty years ago.
We would like to thank The Modigliani Initiative for their contributions to the bibliography of this work.
Modigliani’s Models
