Amedeo Modigliani – Reclining Nude

Reclining Nude is an oil on canvas painted by Amedeo Modigliani in 1917; the specialist literature records it as Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), the reclining nude on the left side, the original measures 89 × 146 cm and is privately held. It shows a nude woman lying on her left side across the full width of the canvas. Our canvas painting is a hand-painted copy of that work: an academy-trained painter makes it in oils on cotton canvas, in eight landscape sizes from 70 × 45 cm to 180 × 110 cm or in a measurement you give us, and before dispatch we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval.

Reclining Nude – Amedeo Modigliani

Who is the model?

The sources do not name her. For the nudes of 1917 Modigliani hired professional models and young women from the neighbourhood, and did not record their names, because the titles of these works describe a pose and not a person. This title is the best evidence of that: it says only which side the model is turned onto. We do know who made the series possible — the Polish dealer Léopold Zborowski, who paid for the studio, the models and the paint. Where there is no name we invent none.

What is on the canvas?

The canvas is wide and low, and the body lies across its whole width, turned onto the left side. The landscape format gives the work its calm: the figure does not fight for space, it fills it. The skin is painted in warm ochre and pink, and the contour is a single long, slow line running from shoulder over hip to thigh, always the most recognisable thing in Modigliani. There is little shading; the colour is laid in broad, smooth areas, with no brushmark drawing attention to itself. The ground is darker and closed, without furniture or window, so the body steps forward and takes all the attention. The face is calm, with no expression that would explain anything.

Why does this work matter?

Because it is the largest canvas of the nudes that brought Modigliani the only scandal of his life. When the dealer Berthe Weill showed these nudes in her window, the police closed the exhibition the same day. Behind the form stand his years as a sculptor, and behind the colour a post-impressionist painting of Cézanne’s kind, in which a body is built from planes and not from details. In Paris Modigliani belonged to the circle of immigrant painters we now call the École de Paris; there the nude was a working assignment and not a provocation. In 2018 this canvas sold at Sotheby’s for 157.2 million dollars, a record for that house at the time; the year before it had been shown in the large Modigliani exhibition at Tate Modern in London.

What does the work mean?

It means a body that has nothing to explain. No mythological title, no scene, no object to say who she is or why she lies there; the person, the colour and the long line remain. It is that missing explanation which unsettled the audience of the day more than the nakedness itself. Modigliani neither flatters the body nor displays it; the contour binds it into a whole closer to a sculpture than to a scene, and that is why after a hundred years the work reads as neither old-fashioned nor provoking. If you want one thought to take away: a calm body is harder to overlook than a dramatic one.

Is this the same work as Red Nude?

No, and the difference is the measurement. This canvas is 89 × 146 cm, the largest of the series, and it sold at Sotheby’s in 2018. Red Nude is the smaller work, 60 × 92 cm, recorded in the literature as Nu couché, and that is the one which reached 170.4 million dollars at Christie’s in 2015. Two different canvases, two different sales, and both titles appear in the sources as “Nu couché”, which is why they are easy to confuse. Related but separate are Nude Sitting on a Divan and Reclining Nude III, while Nude on a Blue Cushion and Nude with Loose Hair are differently composed. The full selection is in the Amedeo Modigliani gallery, and about the painter we have written a longer article; the work is also recorded in the catalogue of his works.

How is our hand-painted version made?

The work is made by an academy-trained painter in oils on cotton canvas, stretched over a wooden frame. It is not a print and not a machine reproduction: every stroke is laid on by hand, so your canvas always differs a little from our reference in brushwork and in the thickness of the paint. The first photograph on this page is our hand-painted canvas, taken in the studio — not the original, but the article you receive. The second photograph shows the same canvas in a different frame, that is, the same work from another distance. The painter begins with the dark ground, because that decides how warm the skin will look, and only then draws the long contour line, which is the hardest part of this subject: once broken it cannot be mended. Once the paint is dry we photograph the work and send you the photograph for approval.

Which size for which wall?

For most homes 110 × 70 cm is the right choice. The format is markedly landscape, so the work sits best above a horizontal piece of furniture — a bed, a sofa or a low sideboard — where it repeats that line. The small sizes, 70 × 45 and 80 × 50 cm, belong in a smaller bedroom or on a narrow wall beside a door. The middle sizes, 90 × 60 and 100 × 65 cm, suit the space above a narrower bed or a desk. The large ones, 116 × 73, 150 × 100 and 180 × 110 cm, ask for an empty wall and at least three metres of distance; at 180 × 110 cm the ratio comes closest to the original and the figure reaches life size. Because the format is so elongated the work will not carry a narrow, tall wall. The subject is candid, so the choice of room matters more than the choice of size.

Custom size, stretcher bar and frame

If your wall calls for a measurement not on the list, we will make it. Give us height and width in centimetres; we check whether the ratio carries the crop of the original and tell you what changes at the edges — on a canvas this wide it shows first at the left and right margins, where the body meets the edge. You can choose whether we send it stretched on a wooden stretcher or rolled in a tube. For this work, besides the unframed version, several frames from our range are available, so you can receive it ready to hang. With placement we help by visualisation, setting the work into a photograph of your wall before you buy. If you are looking for a work we do not carry, see paintings made by order.

Delivery and guarantee

We deliver across Europe to your address, the canvas held away from the outer wall of the packaging. Making time depends on the size and on how busy the studio is; we give an estimate when you order and tell you if it changes. We stand behind workmanship and material: if the work arrives damaged or does not match the photograph you approved, we put it right or repaint it at our cost. Because you see it photographed before dispatch, most questions are settled before the parcel leaves.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original?

In a private collection. As the work is not in a public museum it has no accession number, and we give none.

Who was the woman shown?

The sources do not name her. The title describes a pose and not a person, and we invent no name.

Is Nu couché the same work as Red Nude?

No. Both titles appear in the sources as Nu couché, but they are two canvases: this one measures 89 × 146 cm, Red Nude 60 × 92 cm.

Is this a print?

No. Every canvas is painted by hand, in oils. We print nothing.

Which size should I choose?

If you cannot decide, 110 × 70 cm. Above a bed, 150 × 100 cm; in a smaller room, 80 × 50 cm.

Can I have a size that is not listed?

You can. Give us height and width in centimetres; we explain first how it affects the crop.

How is it delivered?

Stretched and ready to hang, or rolled in a tube, in protective packaging.

What is it about, in one sentence?

That a body which performs nothing looks back longer than one that strikes a pose.

Is the original for sale and what is it worth?

We neither sell nor value the original. The last known public sale was in 2018.

How high should I hang it?

The centre about 145 cm above the floor. Above a bed or sofa leave at least 25 cm between the back and the lower edge.

Is it suitable as a gift?

It is, but the subject is candid and the canvas wide, so it helps to know where it will hang. In a bedroom it reads as natural; in a living room it is a choice.

• Subject: a nude woman lying on her left side across the full width of the canvas, one long unbroken contour, dark closed ground
• Original: 89 × 146 cm, oil on canvas, 1917, private collection, no accession number
• Ours: hand-painted oil on canvas, eight landscape sizes from 70 × 45 to 180 × 110 cm, made to measure on request, with a photograph for approval before dispatch
• Worth knowing: sold in 2018 for 157.2 million dollars — but this is not the canvas that reached 170.4 million in 2015; that is the smaller Red Nude