Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 53. Woman with Velvet Ribbon (The Black Border) (1915)


How are you?

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

The 53rd work to introduce for this week is Woman with Velvet Ribbon (The Black Border) in 1915.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 54 x 45.5 cm. It is currently possessed by Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, France.

Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

The model of this work stands against the background of trees with green leaves, which is very rare in Modigliani's portrait. If "Standing nude with Garden Background (1913)" is excluded, only two other works, "The Portrait of Hanka Zborowska” and “The Beautiful Grocer” painted in 1918, are portraits with similar style’s background. Therefore, this portrait can be considered as a kind of experiments that can attract a lot of people's attention.

Standing Nude with Garden Background (1913)

The Portrait of Hanka Zborowska (1918)

The Beautiful Grocer (1918)

The woman in the portrait, with empty eyes without pupils, has a mask-like face that reflects Modigliani's interest in African art.

Modigliani treated the leaves in the background without perspective, leaving the white of the canvas to be seen on the canvas through rough brushwork. In this work, we can see that only the woman's hair and black ribbon are filled almost completely in dark black, and the dark tones of the background are in strong contrast with the woman's face. This type of brushwork can be regarded as a kind of experiments Modigliani attempted between 1914 and 1915. These Modigliani’s experiments are more pronounced in his portraits of Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera at the similar period.

Portrait of Picasso (1915)

Portrait of Diego Rivera (1914)

Thank you.



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