Amedeo Modigliani – Reclining Nude III

Reclining Nude III is an oil on canvas painted by Amedeo Modigliani in 1916; the original measures 65.5 × 87 cm, is signed upper right and belongs today to the Emil Bührle Collection, on long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich, under accession number BU 0069. Our canvas painting is a hand-painted copy of that work: an academy-trained painter makes it in oil on cotton canvas, in eight sizes from 60 × 40 cm to 180 × 120 cm or in the size you specify, and before dispatch we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval.

Reclining Nude III – Amedeo Modigliani

What is on the canvas?

The canvas is landscape. A woman lies on her back, her head at the left edge and turned towards us, the right arm bent high above the head, the left forearm folded under the chin. The eyes are open, dark and almond-shaped, the hair dark and loose; the look does not turn away. The bedding is ochre and carries red diagonal stripes, and the ground above it is a deep bordeaux brown. The body runs across the full width of the canvas and the legs are cut off at the right edge — it is that crop which gives the work its closeness. It is a post-impressionist painting in the sense in which post-impressionism meant building the body out of planes rather than describing light. In Paris Modigliani belonged to that circle of immigrant painters we now call the École de Paris.

Where is the original today?

In the Emil Bührle Collection, on long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich, under accession number BU 0069; the museum records the work as Liegender Akt and notes that it is on display. The record gives oil on canvas, the year 1916, the measurements 65.5 × 87 cm and the signature at the upper right. The recorded route begins with the painter, is lost for a while, and reappears with his dealer Léopold Zborowski in Paris; on 11 December 1920 the work passed to Henri-Pierre Roché, and that date is tied to the catalogue of the exhibition at the Galerie Montaigne in Paris that same December. A fuller list is in the catalogue entry.

What do the photographs on this page show?

All four photographs show our own hand-painted canvas in the workshop, not the original. The first photograph shows the work square-on and whole, framed in a dark red-brown frame with a gold inner line. The second photograph shows the same canvas at an angle, in our framing workshop, with the rack of moulding samples behind it. The third photograph is a close view of the head and shoulder: the face on its side, the eye, the hand under the chin and the breast. The fourth photograph is a close view of the hip and thigh, where the warm flesh tone meets the dark ground and the ochre bedding. The frame shown is one of many; you choose it yourself.

What did we remove earlier, and what have we found now?

This page previously carried a measurement and a private-collection line that belong to a different canvas — to our Reclining Nude II. We removed both and left the fields empty rather than repeat another work’s data. We have now identified the work and checked it with the institution that holds it: it is the Liegender Akt of 1916, accession number BU 0069. We identified it by the match of pose and colour scale — head at the left edge, arm above the head, ochre bedding with red stripes, bordeaux ground — with the reproduction the museum publishes, and by the title under which the catalogue records the work. So the measurement, year, technique and collection are back in the table, this time with a source that names the work.

The series that brought the police in 1917

Modigliani painted the reclining nudes in 1916 and 1917, while the dealer Léopold Zborowski was supporting him. In December 1917 the gallerist Berthe Weill mounted in Paris the only solo exhibition the painter saw in his lifetime; the police closed it on the first day, because the nudes were visible through the window. Modigliani died in January 1920, aged thirty-five. The series runs to about two dozen canvases; he painted professional models and never those close to him. With us this is one of several reclining compositions from that group.

How is our hand-painted version made?

The work is made by an academy-trained painter in oil on cotton canvas, stretched over a wooden frame. It is not a print: every stroke is laid by hand, and your canvas always differs a little from the one in the photographs. With this subject the hard part is the relation of three warm colours: the bordeaux ground, the ochre bedding and the skin are all warm, so what separates them is not lightness but saturation. Too light a ground and the body loses its volume; too red and the skin takes on the colour. The painter therefore begins with the ground and the bedding and only then lays in the body, from the lightest places downward. When the paint is dry we photograph the work and send the photograph for approval.

Which size for which wall?

Frankly: none of our sizes is one-to-one with the original. The original is 87 cm wide and 65.5 cm tall, so a little less elongated than our canvases, and the painter fits the composition to the format. Closest to the original’s proportion is 100 × 70 cm. The smallest, 60 × 40, 70 × 45 and 80 × 50 cm, suit a smaller sideboard or a narrow space. The medium ones, 93 × 61 and 120 × 80 cm, work above a bed or a sofa, which with a landscape format is the most natural place. The large ones, 150 × 100 and 180 × 120 cm, want a free wall and at least three metres of distance. The work is warm and dark throughout, so it carries a coloured wall too, but is at its best with some emptiness at the sides.

Custom size, stretcher and frame

If your wall asks for a size that is not on the list, we will make it. Give us the width and height in centimetres; we check whether the proportion carries the original’s crop and tell you what changes at the edges — here it shows first at the left, where the head lies, and at the right, where the edge already cuts off the legs in the original; narrowing there takes length from the figure. You can choose whether it arrives stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang, or rolled in a tube, which is cheaper to ship. You pick the frame in our 3D application, which shows it realistically on the work, and on request we set the work into a photograph of your wall. If you are looking for a work we do not carry, see our made-to-order paintings.

Delivery and guarantee

We deliver to your address, the canvas clear of the outer wall of the packaging. Lead time depends on size and the workshop’s load: we estimate it when you order and tell you if it changes. We guarantee workmanship and materials: if the work arrives damaged or does not match the photograph you approved, we repaint it at our own cost. Because you see it in a photograph before it ships, most questions are settled before it leaves.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original?

In the Emil Bührle Collection, on long-term loan at the Kunsthaus Zürich, accession number BU 0069.

What is the work called at the museum?

The museum records it as Liegender Akt; it is also known as Reclining Nude and Nu couché.

Why did this page carry less information before?

Because it previously carried a measurement and a collection belonging to a different canvas. We removed them and left the fields empty until we found a source that names this work.

Does any of your sizes match the original?

No. The original is 87 × 65.5 cm and is a little less elongated than our canvases; the closest is 100 × 70 cm.

Which size should I choose?

Above a bed or sofa, 120 × 80 or 150 × 100 cm. For a smaller wall 80 × 50 cm.

Do the photographs on this page show the original?

No. All four show our own hand-painted canvas, photographed here.

How high should it hang?

With its centre about 145 cm above the floor, and a little lower above a bed, so a hand’s width is left between the headboard and the lower edge.

Which other Modigliani nudes do you have?

See Reclining Nude II, Reclining Nude, Nude with Loose Hair and Nude, and among the seated ones Nude Sitting on a Divan. The full choice is in the Amedeo Modigliani gallery, and we have written a longer article about the painter.

How closely does it follow the original’s proportions?

The original measures 87 × 65.5 cm. The closest of our sizes is 100 x 70 cm, which departs from the original’s proportions by 7.55%.

• Subject: a reclining female figure, head at the left edge turned to the viewer, arm above the head, ochre bedding with red stripes
• Original: 65.5 × 87 cm, oil on canvas, 1916, Emil Bührle Collection, Kunsthaus Zürich (acc. BU 0069)
• Our version: hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes from 60 × 40 to 180 × 120 cm; none advertised as one-to-one
• Worth knowing: the measurement and collection that used to stand here were removed because they belonged to another canvas; the data now comes from the holding institution’s record

The eyes on this canvas are painted without pupils. We counted all 76 Modigliani works on this shelf: 53 are like that, 17 are not – work by work.