Description
Nude Sitting on a Divan is an oil on canvas painted by Amedeo Modigliani in 1917; it is also known in the literature as La Belle Romaine, the beautiful Roman woman, and the original is privately held. It shows a young woman sitting nude on a divan, her body slightly turned, her arms at her sides. Our canvas painting is a hand-painted copy of that work: an academy-trained painter makes it in oils on cotton canvas, in eight sizes from 40 × 60 cm to 120 × 180 cm or in a measurement you give us, and before dispatch we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval.
| Title: | Nude Sitting on a Divan |
| Other titles: | La Belle Romaine · Nu assis sur un divan · Nudo seduto su un divano |
| Painter: | Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) |
| Year: | 1917 |
| Original size (height × width): | 100 × 65 cm (sources give widths between 60 and 65 cm) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Style: | Modern art, École de Paris |
| Location: | Private collection – record of the work (no accession number) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes from 40 × 60 cm to 120 × 180 cm, made to measure on request |
Nude Sitting on a Divan – Amedeo Modigliani
Who is the model?
The sources do not name her. The nickname the beautiful Roman woman came later and describes a type, not a person: there is no evidence that she came from Rome or that her contemporaries called her that. For the nudes of 1917 Modigliani hired professional models and young women from the neighbourhood, and did not record their names. 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, and we give the nickname as a nickname rather than as a fact about the person.
What is on the canvas?
The woman sits nude on a divan, her body slightly turned, her head tilted so that the neck describes the long curve by which Modigliani is recognised. Her arms rest at her sides and conceal nothing; the pose is neither challenging nor shy but loose, the way it goes when a model has been sitting a long time. The skin is painted in warm ochre and pink, and the contour is drawn in a single unhurried line, with no hard shadows. The eyes are dark areas without pupils, which takes direction from the gaze and any explaining expression from the face. The ground is a closed, darker area that pushes the body forward and takes away the space around it. The canvas is upright and narrow, so the figure sits tightly inside it, and that is where the closeness of the scene comes from.
Why does this work matter?
Because it belongs to the series of nudes of 1917, the one that brought Modigliani the only scandal of his life and later the highest prices. When the dealer Berthe Weill showed these nudes in her gallery 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. This particular work later became one of the most expensive: on 2 November 2010 it sold at Sotheby’s in New York for 68.9 million dollars, a record for a Modigliani at the time; eleven years earlier, at the same house, it had reached 16.7 million.
What does the work mean?
It means a body painted without a story and without an excuse. No mythological title, no scene, no object to say who the woman is or why she is sitting there. The person, the colour and the pose remain. It is exactly that missing explanation which unsettled the audience of the day more than the nakedness itself, and which makes the work read as surprisingly present now. Modigliani neither flatters the body nor displays it; the long line of the contour binds it into a whole closer to a sculpture than to a scene. If you want one thought to take away: stillness can be more direct than a gesture.
Is this the same work as Nu couché?
No. Nu couché is a different, larger canvas; it too has an auction history, but its own and a later one. This work is upright and the model is seated. Because we carry several nudes from the same years the confusion is easy: see Red Nude, Nude on a Blue Cushion, Nude with Loose Hair and Reclining Nude III. 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 painter begins with the dark ground, because that decides how warm the skin will look, and only then draws the contour of the body and the long line of the neck, which is the hardest part of this subject. Once the paint is dry we photograph the work and send you the photograph for approval; only when you say it is right does it go further.
Which size for which wall?
For most homes 65 × 100 cm is the right choice; at that size the figure is close to natural proportion and the work is almost as large as the original. The small sizes, 40 × 60 and 50 × 80 cm, belong in a smaller bedroom, on a narrow wall between doors or above a chest of drawers. The middle sizes, 70 × 110 and 80 × 120 cm, are for a wall seen from two or three metres. The large ones, 90 × 140, 100 × 150 and 120 × 180 cm, ask for an empty wall and distance; there the figure is larger than life and the work takes over the room, which with a nude is a deliberate choice. The format is upright and narrow, so it works where the wall is taller than it is wide. 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 — in this tight upright crop it shows first above the head and below the knees. You can also choose whether we send it stretched on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang, or rolled in a tube, which ships cheaper and suits you if your own framer will stretch it. This work is offered without a frame, so you choose the frame yourself. 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 nickname the beautiful Roman woman describes a type and is not a fact about the person.
Is La Belle Romaine the same work?
Yes. That is the settled nickname of the same canvas; in French it is given as Nu assis sur un divan.
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, 65 × 100 cm, the closest to the original. For a smaller room, 50 × 80 cm; for a large wall, 90 × 140 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 needs no story to deserve a canvas.
Is the original for sale and what is it worth?
We neither sell nor value the original. It is privately held; the last known public sale was in 2010.
How high should I hang it?
The centre about 145 cm above the floor. With a narrow upright format, hang it a shade lower than looks right at first.
Is it suitable as a gift?
It is, but the subject is candid, 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 young woman seated on a divan, body slightly turned, long tilted neck, eyes without pupils
- Original: oil on canvas, 1917, height 100 cm; sources give the width as between 60 and 65 cm; private collection
- Ours: hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes from 40 × 60 to 120 × 180 cm, made to measure on request, with a photograph for approval before dispatch
- Worth knowing: in 2010 it sold for 68.9 million dollars and was then the most expensive Modigliani — eleven years earlier, at the same house, it had reached 16.7 million
