The story turns up in every piece written about Modigliani: he left the eyes empty until he knew a person’s soul. It is a good story. Our shelf can test it, because we hold 76 of his works and we looked at every one – first the text of the cell, then the painting itself. The result: 53 works have empty eyes and 22 do not. On one, at the resolution available, it could not be told, and it is recorded that way.
What we counted
Of the 76 works on this shelf: 53 have eyes without pupils, 17 have painted pupils, 3 have one eye with a pupil and one without, 2 have the eyes closed, and on 1 no verdict is possible. So the rule does not hold: pupils appear far too often to be the exception, and empty eyes are a habit rather than a promise.
All 76 works, one by one
Every row links to its own work. The column “What is on the canvas” is the observation made in front of the painting, written down as it was recorded while looking.
| Work | Eyes | What is on the canvas |
|---|---|---|
| Red Nude | no pupils | single visible eye is one solid dark almond, no iris/sclera division |
| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne I | pupils | both eyes have dark round irises with white sclera either side |
| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne II | pupils | dark brown irises with visible white at the outer corners |
| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne III | pupils | blue-grey iris disc with darker centre, white sclera at inner corner |
| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne IV | pupils | rounded blue iris with catchlight, whites showing at both corners |
| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne in Black and Red Dress | no pupils | profile eye is a small pale bluish slit, uniform, nothing drawn inside |
| Portrait of Beatrice Hastings | no pupils | angular outlined lids over flat skin-tone and a dark band, no iris |
| Reclining Nude II | no pupils | both eyes are pointed lens shapes filled uniform blue-black |
| Gypsy Woman with Baby | one eye with a pupil, one without | viewer-right eye has a distinct dark pupil; left is a flat blue field |
| Seated Nude | no pupils | one grey-mauve and one green almond, each an even field |
| Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz | no pupils | all four eyes are solid dark slits under a lid line |
| The Little Peasant | no pupils | two small grey-blue slits with even fill |
| Portrait of Lunia Czechowska | no pupils | profile eye is a pale grey-blue lens, blank |
| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne V | no pupils | two grey-blue almonds, flat colour, no iris |
| Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne VI | no pupils | small pale blue-grey almonds, uniform |
| Nude Sitting on a Divan | no pupils | olive-green almonds, mottled but with no iris disc |
| Portrait of Chaïm Soutine | pupils | dark iris mass set against pale sclera in both eyes |
| Nude on a Blue Cushion | no pupils | both eyes dark-filled almonds; only a white catchlight, no pupil |
| Caryatid | no pupils | eye is an empty charcoal lens outline, nothing drawn inside |
| Portrait of Juan Gris | pupils | white sclera wedges flank a solid black iris/pupil in both eyes |
| Portrait of Max Jacob | no pupils | both eye openings are filled dark almonds, no iris ring or pupil disc |
| Nude | eyes closed | eyes drawn as single curved lid strokes with lashes, no opening |
| Red-haired Young Woman in a Shirt | no pupils | two flat blue-grey almonds, uniform colour edge to edge |
| Seated Woman in Blue Dress | no pupils | uniform dark green-grey almond fields under the brow lines |
| Portrait of a Polish Woman | no pupils | narrow solid dark slits, lid arcs drawn separately above |
| Self-Portrait | no pupils | both eyes are flat dark maroon-brown slits with no interior modelling |
| Reclining Nude | pupils | clear white sclera with a dark iris and pupil in both eyes |
| Seated Nude | eyes closed | head tilted, lids closed with lash strokes over them |
| Nude with Loose Hair | pupils | white sclera on both sides of a dark round iris, both eyes |
| Reclining Nude III | no pupils | narrow uniformly dark almonds, no sclera, no pupil at full resolution |
| Portrait of Moïse Kisling | pupils | large white sclera wedges around heavy black irises in both eyes |
| Renée | no pupils | the whole opening is one teal-green field; only white catchlight dots |
| The Young Apprentice | no pupils | two small flat blue-grey slivers, downcast, no iris or pupil |
| Jeanne Hébuterne in a Yellow Sweater | no pupils | plain pale-blue almonds, uniform, no interior marks |
| Jeanne Hébuterne in a White Chemise | no pupils | pale blue-grey almonds outlined in dark, blank inside |
| Madame Kisling | no pupils | both eyes are uniform slate/teal fields with lid strokes only |
| Portrait of Léopold Survage | one eye with a pupil, one without | his right eye is a flat grey-blue blank; his left has a modelled blue iris with a dark pupil |
| Woman with Blue Eyes | no pupils | two flat cyan-blue almonds, uniform colour, no pupil |
| Madame Hanka Zborowska | no pupils | narrow almond slits filled flat green, no iris or pupil |
| The Boy | no pupils | uniform slate-blue slits under the lids, no iris drawn |
| Madame G. van Muyden | pupils | large blue-grey iris mass in each eye with white sclera at the corners |
| Portrait of Léopold Zborowski | no pupils | flat slits, one grey-blue one teal, uniform colour throughout |
| Léon Bakst | cannot be told | the eye is a small mottled blue-white smear; iris and brushwork cannot be separated |
| L’Enfant gras | no pupils | heavy-lidded almonds filled uniform grey-brown, no iris |
| Madam Pompadour | no pupils | solid black almond blobs, nothing inside |
| Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse | no pupils | flat pale-blue almonds, no iris or pupil |
| The Servant Girl | no pupils | both eyes blank dark blue-black fields under heavy lids |
| Jean Cocteau | one eye with a pupil, one without | viewer-right eye has a round black pupil with white sclera; viewer-left is a blank dark wedge |
| Portrait of Lunia Czechowska in a White Blouse | no pupils | pale blue-grey almonds outlined in dark, uniform fill |
| The Red Head | no pupils | left eye flat dark blue-grey, right eye a white impasto slab; neither has an iris |
| Léon Indenbaum | no pupils | pale grey-green blank almonds |
| Viking Eggeling | no pupils | dark green-teal masses fill the almonds; highlights are brushstrokes |
| Head of a Woman | no pupils | solid black almond shapes, only a sclera glint, no drawn iris |
| Boy in a Striped Sweater | no pupils | pale blue-grey fields with lid line only, no iris circle |
| The Italian Woman | pupils | brown irises with darker pupils and white sclera in both eyes |
| Woman with Earrings | pupils | big black iris and pupil in each eye, white sclera at the corners |
| The Painter Krémègne | no pupils | narrow slate-blue slits, uniform, no iris |
| Lolotte | pupils | proper-left eye has an olive iris with dark pupil and white highlight over visible sclera |
| Lola de Valence | no pupils | the single drawn eye is a bare charcoal almond outline filled with plain flesh tone |
| Beatrice (Portrait of Béatrice Hastings) | no pupils | one eye an empty outline, the other a solid uniform brown fill |
| Adrienne (Woman with Bangs) | pupils | both eyes show a distinct dark iris with a sclera crescent at the outer corner |
| Portrait of Léopold Zborowski (The Israel Museum) | no pupils | right aperture a flat olive-green band, left a dark hollow |
| Reverie (Study for the Portrait of Frank Burty Haviland) | no pupils | narrow slanted almond with a pale sliver fill, no darker disc even at master resolution |
| Paul Guillaume | no pupils | both eyes are solid blue-black wedges filling the aperture |
| Girl Standing in Black Pinafore | pupils | round dark brown iris with white highlight set in white sclera, both eyes |
| Café Singer | no pupils | shallow almonds carrying a uniform soft grey-green wash |
| Young Woman in a Yellow Dress | pupils | dark iris and pupil with white sclera and a paint highlight in both eyes |
| Portrait of Max Jacob (Düsseldorf) | no pupils | left eye a flat teal-green field, right a flat grey-white field |
| Jeanne Seated with Her Arm on the Chair Back | no pupils | pale blue-grey blank almonds |
| Boy in Short Pants | no pupils | narrow slate-teal slivers of uniform colour |
| Flower Vendor | no pupils | both eyes are flat teal-green almond fields with no iris drawn |
| Motherhood | no pupils | the mother's eyes pale blue blanks; the child's likewise plain blue-grey ovals |
| Woman with a White Collar | no pupils | both eyes filled edge to edge with uniform green |
| Portrait of a Young Woman (Yale) | pupils | profile eye has a round dark iris with white highlight and sclera either side |
| Young Man with a Cap | no pupils | pale grey-green blank slits under the cap |
| Young Woman (Oslo) | no pupils | solid dark slate-blue almonds, uniform |
What the museums actually say
The explanations other people give, each with the record it comes from: the Dallas Museum of Art says beside its own work that he admired African masks together with Matisse, Picasso, Braque and Derain, and that the influence shows in the stylised treatment of the face. The Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo writes of African sculpture whose linear, elongated style gave his figures an air of sophisticated modernity, and adds, beside one of its own works, that individualising features were not the painter’s manner. The Musée de Grenoble names among his sources archaic Greek, Etruscan and Egyptian statuary. The curator of the Yale University Art Gallery even names the places: the sculpture he saw in Paris, at the Trocadéro among others, and the masks of the Ivory Coast. None of these records mentions a soul.
What this list is not
The verdicts are made in front of the reproduction we hold, not the canvas in the museum; on small heads and soft paint the line between an iris and a brushstroke is real, and on one work we admitted that rather than guessed. The list says what is on the painting – not why it is there.
Every work on this shelf is on the page of Modigliani paintings, each as a hand-painted reproduction.
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