Amedeo Modigliani – Portrait of a Polish Woman

Portrait of a Polish Woman is an oil on canvas painted by Amedeo Modigliani in 1919; the original measures 100.3 × 64.8 cm and belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art under accession number 1963-181-48, in the Louis E. Stern Collection. It shows a young woman to the waist, slightly turned, her head tilted to her right; the title gives an origin and not a name. 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.

Portrait of a Polish Woman – Amedeo Modigliani

Who is the sitter?

We do not know her name. The title gives an origin rather than a person, which is common in Modigliani: when the model was neither a client nor a friend, he named the work by type, trade or origin. We do know the setting it came from. His dealer was the Pole Léopold Zborowski, who paid for the studio and the paint, and around him in Paris was a wide circle of Polish emigrants — dealers, poets, models. From that circle come Portrait of Lunia Czechowska and Madame Hanka Zborowska as well. Whether this woman belonged to it the sources do not say with certainty, so we do not claim it; where there is no name we invent none.

What is on the canvas?

The woman is painted to the waist and sits slightly turned, her head tilted to her right so that the neck describes a long, soft curve — Modigliani’s most recognisable trait. The hair is dark, parted in the middle and combed smoothly over the ears. Face and neck stand in warm ochre and peach tones, and the contour is drawn in a single unhurried line, with no hard shadows. The eyes are dark, almost uniform areas; the gaze neither seeks the viewer nor avoids them. The clothing is dark and plain, with no jewellery to say anything about rank or means. The ground is a closed, neutral area that pushes the figure forward. The canvas is tall and narrow, so the figure sits tightly inside it, and the scene loses any sense of space around the person.

Why does this work matter?

Because it comes from the last year of the painter’s life, when his form was fully developed. The long neck, the oval face and the eyes without pupils are no longer an attempt here but a language he commands. Behind the form stand his years as a sculptor and the heads he carved before returning to painting; in colour, behind it stands a post-impressionist painting of Cézanne’s kind, in which a head 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, and there the portrait was a central task. That the work ended in an American public museum is no accident: the collector Louis E. Stern was among the first to buy Modigliani seriously, and his collection later passed to Philadelphia.

What does the work mean?

It means a portrait without a narrative. No object in the hands, no furniture, no window to say where we are; the person and the colour remain. That is exactly why the work reads today as it did a hundred years ago — nothing in it depends on fashion or setting. The tilted head is the only gesture the painter allows, and it is not coquettish but tired and calm. If you want one thought to take away: a portrait needs no story to be personal.

Is this the same work as Portrait of Lunia Czechowska?

No. Lunia Czechowska is a named person from Zborowski’s circle, and Modigliani painted her several times; this canvas carries a title with no name. Because we carry several portraits of women from the same years, the confusion is easy: see Portrait of Beatrice Hastings, an English poet and not a Pole, and Lolotte, where the title gives a nickname. The Polish circle is completed by Portrait of Léopold Zborowski, the dealer who made all of it possible. The full selection is in the Amedeo Modigliani gallery, and about the painter we have written a longer article; his life is also documented away from our pages.

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 ground and the dark mass of the hair, because those decide how warm the skin will look, and only then draws the face 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. If something is not to your liking, the painter corrects it before the work leaves the studio.

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 original is only a little larger. The small sizes, 40 × 60 and 50 × 80 cm, belong in a hallway, on a narrow wall between doors or above a chest of drawers. The middle sizes, 70 × 110 and 80 × 120 cm, are meant for the wall above a sofa or a dining table, seen from two or three metres. The large ones, 90 × 140, 100 × 150 and 120 × 180 cm, belong in rooms with high ceilings and in corridors; at those sizes the head is larger than life and the work takes over the room. The format is upright and narrow, so it works where the wall is taller than it is wide — beside a door, between windows, or in a stairwell. The dark, quiet range asks for no strong wall colour.

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 at the shoulders. 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 the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the Louis E. Stern Collection, under accession number 1963-181-48.

What was the woman called?

The sources do not name her. The title gives an origin, not a person, and we invent no name.

Is Bildnis einer Polin the same work?

Yes. That is the German title of the same canvas; in Italian it is Ritratto di una donna polacca.

Which size should I choose?

If you cannot decide, 65 × 100 cm. Above a sofa, 80 × 120 cm; on a narrow hallway wall, 40 × 60 cm.

What is it about, in one sentence?

That a person deserves a portrait even when history did not write down their name.

Is the original for sale and what is it worth?

It is not for sale. It belongs to a public museum collection, is not on the market, and so we do not value it.

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. The subject is quiet and dignified, without ornament, so it holds up in a room that is not given over to art.

How closely does it follow the original’s proportions?

The original measures 64.8 × 100.3 cm, and that is exactly the size we list: 65 x 100 cm. The proportions are the original’s, with no deviation.

• Subject: a young woman to the waist, head tilted right, long soft neck, dark hair parted in the middle, no jewellery
• Original: 100.3 × 64.8 cm, oil on canvas, 1919, Philadelphia Museum of Art (inv. 1963-181-48), Louis E. Stern 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: the title gives an origin and not a name — it is the portrait of a person history did not 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.