Amedeo Modigliani

Italian, 1884 - 1920

Amedeo Modigliani’s unmistakable portraits left a lasting mark on 20th-century European art. With a style unrestrained by the movements of his time, Modigliani is known for painting elongated necks and blank, staring eyes.

Born in Livorno, Italy, to Jewish parents, Modigliani moved to Paris in 1906. He joined the growing community of immigrant artists there, the School of Paris. He drew inspiration from African and Egyptian art, Italian Renaissance painting, and above all the art of Paul Cezanne. His works include richly colored, firmly drawn nudes and stylized portraits. But he also created intimate likenesses of friends and colleagues such as artists Chaim Soutine and Léon Bakst.

Modigliani died at age 35, before achieving commercial success or recognition. Today, the National Gallery has one of the largest collections of his work, with twelve paintings, one sculpture, and one drawing.

Explore Selected Works

See all 14 works of art
Shown from the knees up, a woman with peach-colored skin and dark hair sits facing us and holding a baby in this stylized, vertical portrait painting. The woman’s features are elongated and simplified, and the nearly geometric forms are outlined with gray. Loose brushstrokes are visible throughout, creating a textured, mottled effect. The woman’s long, thin face comes to a point at her chin, and her brown hair is pulled back on either side of her forehead. She has pale blue eyes, an exaggeratedly long nose, noticeably flushed cheeks, and her coral-pink, bow lips are closed. Her white blouse has a wide, tomato-red, squared collar that lies over her shoulders, and a thin, light blue scarf drapes around her neck and down her chest. Her long, full skirt is blended shades of violet purple and sky blue. The woman’s hands are clasped around a baby wrapped in a navy-blue blanket. The baby’s head is covered with a long pink cap with black and white bands at each end. The woman casts a narrow shadow against the gray wall behind her. Bands of elephant gray, black, and brown behind her across the bottom of the composition suggest an abstracted bench or seat she sits on. The artist signed the work in dark letters near the upper left corner: “Modigliani.”
Amedeo Modigliani, Roma Woman with Baby, 1919, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.174

Roma Woman with Baby

Amedeo Modigliani · 1919 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.174

Shown from the lap up, a cleanshaven man with black hair and dark clothes faces us as he sits with his hands resting together in his lap in this stylized, vertical portrait painting. The man's features, clothing, and the room are painted with areas of mottled color with visible brushstrokes, so many details are indistinct. The man has peach-colored skin, and his facial features are outlined. He has dark eyes that look at us or slightly up, under thin, arched brows. One eye is a little higher than the other, and the two halves of his long face do not quite match. He has a wide nose, and his full, dark rose-pink lips are closed. His hair is parted down the middle and is brushed down to meet his ears. He has an elongated neck, and his narrow shoulders slope down. He wears black pants and a black coat over a dark teal-green vest. A white shirt is visible along his neckline, and an area of black could be the knot of a tie. He holds the fingers of one hand in his other, both hands resting in his lap. A loosely painted, brown table sits next to the man to our right, and an area of slate blue and white could be a glass on the table. A vertical line in the background behind the man, to our right, probably indicates the corner of the room. The walls are painted with strokes of smoke gray, ocean blue, and some parchment white. The artist signed the work in dark letters in the upper right corner, “modigliani.”
Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, 1918, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.47

Chaim Soutine

Amedeo Modigliani · 1918 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.47

A nude woman lying across a brown divan in front of a russet-red wall is loosely painted with areas of mottled color in this horizontal composition. The woman fills the wide canvas so her head is angled into the upper left corner, and her legs extend off the right edge of the composition below the knees. Her long, oval face rests back against the couch, and she looks at us with slitted, almond-shaped eyes under dark, shallowly arched brows. She has a long, straight nose, flushed cheeks, a double chin, and her pink lips are closed. Her breasts fall to each side so we only see the pink nipple closer to us. She has a rounded belly and a triangle of brown hair at her groin. Her arms rest alongside her body. The couch has a low, upholstered arms sweeping down the sides. Black lines in the red wall behind the couch suggest molding or cabinetry. The artist signed the painting in the upper right corner, “modigliani.”
Amedeo Modigliani, Nude on a Divan, 1918, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.77

Nude on a Divan

Amedeo Modigliani · 1918 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.77

Amedeo Modigliani, Madame Amédée (Woman with Cigarette), 1918, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.172

Madame Amédée (Woman with Cigarette)

Amedeo Modigliani · 1918 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.172

Amedeo Modigliani, Girl in a Green Blouse, 1917, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.45

Girl in a Green Blouse

Amedeo Modigliani · 1917 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.45

A woman with peachy skin and dark auburn hair is shown from her chest up sitting in a wooden chair in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our right, and her left arm, farther from us, rests on the back of the chair so the fingers of that hand rest alongside her left cheek. Her face is angled to our right but her dark eyes cut back to look at or toward us from the corners of her almond-shaped eyes. She has thin, gently arched brows, a long, sloping nose, and her burgundy-red lips are closed. Her features are outlined with delicate, dark gray or black lines. Bangs sweep across her forehead, and her hair looks like it might be pulled up and back. Her rust-brown garment has a square neckline, and a lighter strip of smoke gray and sky blue runs along her right shoulder, closer to us. She sits in front of an indistinctly patterned wine-red wall, with a lighter, tan-colored rectangle in the upper right corner. The background, her clothing, and the hand by her face are painted with areas of mottled color but the skin of her face seems smooth. The artist signed the painting with bright red letters at the upper right, “Modigliani.”
Amedeo Modigliani, Adrienne (Woman with Bangs), 1917, oil on linen, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.171

Adrienne (Woman with Bangs)

Amedeo Modigliani · 1917 · oil on linen ·  Accession ID  1963.10.171

This vertical portrait painting shows the head and shoulders of a person with pale peach skin and an auburn, cheek-length bob hairstyle. The person has high cheek bones, deep pink lips, and an angular, pointed chin. The head is cocked to our left, and almond-shaped eyes are nearly blacked out. The black jacket has lapels over a white, collared, buttoned-up shirt with a crimson-red necktie. Shown against brick-red and black background, the portrait is painted with areas of relatively flat color but with loose brushstrokes that create a textured, mottled effect. The artist signed the work with black paint in the lower right corner: “modigliani.” 
Amedeo Modigliani, Madame Kisling, c. 1917, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.175

Madame Kisling

Amedeo Modigliani · c. 1917 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.175

Shown from the knees up, a woman wearing a black dress is painted with areas of mottled color in this vertical painting. The woman’s body faces us, her shoulders sloping steeply down from her elongated neck. She sits with her hands in her lap, and she looks down and to our left. Her peach-colored, long, narrow face comes to a point at her chin, and her cheeks are flushed pink. Her almond-shaped eyes, curved brows, long nose, and closed lips are outlined with gray. Her brown hair is pulled up and back, and short bangs brush her forehead. A gold-colored disk at the point of the dress’s V-neck could be a brooch. Two parallel black lines suggest a chair rail running behind the woman’s elbows. The background is painted with visible strokes of fog gray and moss green above the rail and darker, elephant gray below. The artist signed the upper right corner, “modigliani.”
Amedeo Modigliani, Café Singer, 1917, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.44

Café Singer

Amedeo Modigliani · 1917 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.44

Shown from the lap up, a woman with peach-colored skin sits leaning sideways against the back of a wooden chair with her head tilted to our left on her long neck in this vertical, stylized portrait. The painting is done mostly with areas of mottled color outlined in delicate black lines. The top of her head and her left elbow, on our right, are slightly cut off by the edges of the canvas. Her copper-red hair is parted in the middle and puffs down and around her hears. Her elongated oval face and delicate features are simply drawn. Pencil-thin, nearly straight, grayish eyebrows float above almond-shaped eyes entirely filled in with black. A faint gray line forms her elongated nose. Her small rose pink, pursed lips are slightly darker than the faint blush on her cheeks. Her jet-black, long-sleeved dress has a high waist and a wide, diaphanous gray collar at the rounded neckline. Her left elbow, on our right, drapes over the top of the spindles making up the back of the chair so her hand rests near the gray collar. Her other arm rests by her side. The background is a foggy swirl of sage green and elephant gray. Two faint, thin, parallel, horizontal gray lines that run across the background may suggest a baseboard.
Amedeo Modigliani, Woman with Red Hair, 1917, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.176

Woman with Red Hair

Amedeo Modigliani · 1917 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.176

Amedeo Modigliani, Léon Bakst, 1917, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.173

Léon Bakst

Amedeo Modigliani · 1917 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.173