The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 15. Sorrowful Nude (1908)

How are you?

Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 15th work to introduce for this week is “Sorrowful Nude (1908)”.

This work is, a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 81 x 54 cm, painted by Modigliani in 1908.

In 1903, when Modigliani studied art in Venice, he shared a studio with his friend Oscar Ghiglia, who studied art together in his hometown of Livorno.

In 1903, Oscar exhibited a rather traditional portrait of a woman at the Venice Biennale.

There were many works of French Impressionists at the exhibition, but there were also a number of surreal and dreamy works that could be classified as Symbolism.

Modigliani, who loved the poems of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, who were Symbolist poets, was strongly impressed by these Symbolists’ works.

Unlike the Impressionism, which was confined to France, the Symbolism was a Pan-European movement that took place in many European countries at the end of the 19th century, and the Symbolists pursued anti-realism rather than the visible reality.

Since currently there remained very few paintings that Modigliani painted when he was an art student, it is difficult to ascertain whether he was directly affected by Symbolism.

However, in some works during his first years after moving to Paris, it is certain that Modigliani used Symbolic themes, and one of which is the "Sorrowful Nude”, which I introduce today.

The loneliness and body’s lines of the woman in this work are very similar to “Mother grieving over her Dead Child” by George Minne, who was a Belgian Art Nouveau artist and sculptor, or “Madonna” by Edvard Munch, who was a Norwegian Expressionist/Symbolist painter.

Pain and ecstasy are felt at the same time from the woman with her head back, eyes closed, and mouth opened, suggesting that pain and ecstasy have something in common.

Besides, in the face of the woman who looks like wearing a mask, Modigliani seems to induce the imagination of the viewer, by hiding all her emotions completely behind the mask-like face.

Symbolist painters regarded eyes as a "mirror of the soul”, and they thought that they can read the people's mind through their eyes.

It seems that the reason why Modigliani didn’t draw the model’s eyes in many paintings is that he cannot read the model’s mind through the eyes, and it is thought that Modigliani was influenced by Symbolism.

After two years in Venice, Modigliani went to Paris, France, where he ended his life.

The interesting things in this painting are that a man's face is drawn on the bottom right of the model, and a detailed inspection of this painting showed that the canvas was reused.

Thank you.