Amedeo Modigliani – Nude

Nude is an oil on canvas painted by Amedeo Modigliani in 1917; the original is 73 cm tall and 116.7 cm wide, so landscape, and hangs in the Guggenheim Museum in New York under accession number 41.535. 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 70 × 45 cm to 180 × 110 cm or in the size you specify, and before dispatch we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval.

Nude – Amedeo Modigliani

What is on the canvas?

A woman lies facing the viewer, her right arm bent behind her head, her left along her body. Beneath her is pale, almost white bedding, which the painter sets against a very dark ground; between those two extremes the body reads as the only warm surface in the work. To the right, behind the hip, a reddish plane opens, the only other colour in the scene. The edge of the canvas cuts off the legs, so the figure does not stand in a space but lies immediately in front of us. The face is simplified and calm, with no story to be read from it. The signature is at the upper right, painted in white. The composition has no trimmings: no curtain, no window, no object to explain where we are. What is left is the relation of three values — dark ground, pale sheet, warm skin — and that relation is exactly what decides whether a reproduction is good.

What do the photographs on this page show?

Both photographs show our own hand-painted canvas, not the original. The first photograph shows the work in a gold frame, taken at an angle in our framing workshop with the rack of moulding samples behind it; it shows the upper half of the scene — the head with closed eyes, the raised arm, the pale bedding and the dark ground. The second photograph is a close view of the lower body, where the warm flesh tone meets the dark ground and the reddish band at the right; it shows well how smoothly the paint is laid and how few shadows there are. The frame shown is one of many; you choose it yourself.

Why are the eyes closed?

Because in this nude they really are closed, and that is unusual. In most of Modigliani’s heads the eyes are open but empty, without pupils; here he shut them, and the work turns inward. Among the titles it is catalogued under is Recumbent nude with eyes closed. For the viewer the difference is large: a figure that does not look back neither invites nor challenges, it simply sleeps. 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 Guggenheim Museum in New York, under accession number 41.535, in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, which received it as a gift in 1941. The route before that is recorded as follows: from the hands of Léopold Zborowski, the painter’s dealer, the work went to the Libaude collection in Paris, then to the Bing gallery and to the collection of the critic Félix Fénéon, where it was between 1929 and 1938. We give the measurements and technique from the catalogue entry: 73 × 116.7 cm, oil on canvas. The museum’s page is publicly reachable but does not serve its data without JavaScript, so we did not copy the accession number from there but from the catalogue, which gives it twice.

What is written on the back of the canvas?

On the back, in black oil paint, stands Modigliani. / 3 Joseph Bara. / Paris. / 1917. That is the address where the painter was working at the time — 3 rue Joseph Bara in Paris, the apartment of his dealer Zborowski, where most of his nudes of that year were made. The inscription is therefore signature, date and place at once, and one of the rare cases where a work says for itself where it was painted. For us it is also a reminder of how precisely this series is documented: the canvases were made in one room, in one year, against the same dark ground.

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 hardest part is the one that looks simplest. The very dark ground is not a single black plane; painted quickly and in one pass it goes dead, and the skin in front of it goes grey. The painter builds it in several thin layers with brown and bluish tones still under the surface. The same holds for the bedding: white is not white but a run of cool greys you notice only close up. When the paint is dry we photograph the work and send the photograph for approval.

Which size for which wall?

The 116 × 73 cm size is practically the original’s, so you receive the original proportions. The smallest, 70 × 45 and 80 × 50 cm, suit a smaller sideboard or a narrow space. The medium ones, 90 × 60, 100 × 65 and 110 × 70 cm, work above a bed or sofa, which with a landscape format is the most natural place. The large ones, 150 × 100 and 180 × 110 cm, want a free wall and at least three metres of distance; at those sizes the figure is larger than life and the work takes the room. Since the ground is very dark, the work is at its best on a light wall and in soft light; in strong direct light the dark plane shines and loses its depth.

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 right, where the edge already cuts off the legs in the original and cannot be narrowed further without taking 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 held 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 Guggenheim Museum in New York, accession number 41.535.

Is the work in the Thannhauser Collection?

No. It belongs to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection and entered the museum as a gift in 1941; the accession number, which begins with 41, points the same way.

Are the eyes really closed?

Yes. One of the work’s catalogue titles is “recumbent nude with eyes closed”, and that is how it is painted.

Is this a print?

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

Which size should I choose?

If you want the original’s size, 116 × 73 cm. Above a bed or sofa, 110 × 70 or 150 × 100 cm.

Can I have a size that is not on the list?

Yes. Give us the width and height in centimetres; we explain first how the size affects the crop.

How does it arrive?

Stretched on a wooden frame ready to hang, or rolled in a tube. Both travel in protective packaging.

Do the photographs on this page show the original?

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

Is the original for sale?

No. It belongs to a public museum collection, it is not on the market, and so we put no value on it.

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

• Subject: a reclining female figure with closed eyes, the right arm behind the head, pale bedding against a very dark ground
• Original: 73 × 116.7 cm, oil on canvas, 1917, Guggenheim Museum, New York (acc. 41.535)
• Our version: hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes from 70 × 45 to 180 × 110 cm; the 116 × 73 cm size is one-to-one with the original
• Worth knowing: the back of the canvas carries the painter’s Paris address in oil paint, 3 rue Joseph Bara, and the year 1917