Description
The Portrait of Léopold Zborowski is a large canvas held by the São Paulo Museum of Art under inventory number MASP.00150 and dated 1916–19. Zborowski was Modigliani’s dealer and the man who paid for his studio and sent him his sitters — so what is painted here is the person who made most of the other canvases on this shelf possible at all. With us it is made as a hand-painted copy, oil on canvas, to order, in eight sizes or in a size you give us; before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas.
| Title: | Portrait of Léopold Zborowski |
| Other titles: | Retrato de Leopold Zborowski (the title in MASP’s record) |
| Painter: | Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) |
| Year of creation: | 1916–19 |
| Original size (width × height): | 65 × 100 cm |
| Original technique: | oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | expressionism, École de Paris |
| Located: | São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) (inv. MASP.00150) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted copy, oil on canvas, eight sizes or a custom size |
Portrait of Léopold Zborowski – Amedeo Modigliani
What is on the canvas?
A man seated, given to the hips, turned slightly to the right. He wears a dark coat over a lighter shirt; the collar is open and there is no tie. The face is long and serious, with a strong dark beard and moustache, which on this shelf is a rarity — most of the sitters are clean-shaven. The eyes are almond-shaped and dark, the nose long. The hands rest in the lap. The neck is lengthened in Modigliani’s way, the head slightly tilted. The ground is even and dark, so that all the attention stays on the face and shoulders.
Who was Léopold Zborowski?
Léopold Zborowski (1889–1932) was a Polish poet who became an art dealer in Paris. He paid Modigliani’s studio rent, sent him sitters and bought him paint in the years when the painter sold almost nothing; without him Modigliani’s last working years would look entirely different, and there would probably not be nearly so many of them. It was he who in 1918 and 1919 also paid for the painter’s stay in the south of France, where Modigliani went for his health. The circle that gathered around him is the one we now call the École de Paris. On this shelf Zborowski is present twice over: as the sitter of this canvas, and as a name that turns up in the history of almost every other work.
The record of the original, and how it reached São Paulo
The original is oil on canvas. MASP measures it 100 × 65 × 5.5 cm — height, width and the depth of the stretcher, which on this canvas is unusually deep — and dates it 1916–19. That is a four-year range and not a year, and we give it the same way; the museum has no narrower date and we do not invent one. How the canvas reached Brazil is in the record: as a gift of Euvaldo Lodi in 1950. That was the first year Modiglianis began arriving at MASP; the last of the six came in 1952. The work also has its own Wikidata entry.
The motif among the painter’s works
Beside Zborowski our shelf also carries the canvas that entered MASP as a portrait of his wife, Madame Hanka Zborowska — the museum lists it under a different name today, which is explained on that page. From the same collection come Renée and Madame G. van Muyden. For anyone interested in this circle as a whole, Portrait of Lunia Czechowska is instructive too. The whole selection is in the Amedeo Modigliani gallery, and we have written a longer article about the painter.
How is our hand-painted version made?
A painter paints it, with a brush, in oil on canvas, to your order. Every canvas painting takes some weeks, and each copy comes out slightly its own; that is not a fault but the consequence of a person working rather than a machine. On this motif the beard is the hard part: it is painted in a few broad strokes and not as individual hairs, and worked up too far it takes the firmness out of the face that the original has. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished canvas and approve it. It is never a print.
Which size for which wall?
For this motif we suggest 70 × 110 cm. At 65 × 100 cm the original is one of the larger canvases on this shelf and the figure is nearly life-size, so it works best where it has room — on a main wall or in a hallway. For a smaller room 60 × 90 cm is enough. Below 50 × 80 cm we advise against it, because at a small scale the dark coat and the dark ground merge. If you want a post-impressionist painting in a size that is not on the list, we make it to order.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
In the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), inventory number MASP.00150, a gift of Euvaldo Lodi in 1950.
Why do you give a four-year range?
Because the museum gives one: 1916–19. No narrower date appears in the record, and we do not invent one.
How closely does it follow the original’s proportions?
The original measures 65 × 100 cm, and that is exactly the size we list: 65 x 100 cm. The proportions are the original’s, with no deviation.
- Subject: a seated man in a dark coat, dark beard and moustache, open collar, an even dark ground
- Original: 65 × 100 cm, oil on canvas, 1916–19, São Paulo Museum of Art, inv. MASP.00150
- Ours: hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes or a custom size, with a photograph to approve before dispatch
- Worth knowing: the sitter was the painter’s dealer — the man without whom most of the other canvases on this shelf would not exist
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.
