How are you?
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 56th work to introduce for this
week is “Woman in a Sailor Shirt” in 1916. This work is an expressionist style
portrait and an oil painting on a canvas with the size of 55x35 cm, which is
currently in Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The model of this work, with short
black hair that emphasizes her oval face, is an unknown woman. The dark
background and the model's clothes highlight the model's warm pink-colored
face. The model for this work also appears in another portrait by Modigliani,
"The Seated Servant Girl (La servetta seduta)" painted in the same
year. The model's face is oval, but one of the features of the Modigliani painting
style that elongates the model's body appears in the model's neck.
The Seated Servant Girl
This work was displayed in the solo
exhibition of Modigliani, organized by his dealer Leopold Zbrowski, at the
Berthe Weill Gallery in Paris in 1917. However, the exhibition resulted in the
unfortunate end by being forcibly closed due to the paintings of female nudes
in the window.
Leaflet for Modigliani's solo exhibition, Galerie Berthe Weill (1917)
This work was purchased by Paul Guillaume in 1917, the same year
of the exhibition, and then only rarely shown except for the exhibitions at the
Palais des Beaux-Arts in Bruxelles in 1933 and at Kunsthalle Basel in 1934
until it was taken over by the Toso collection in Venice in 1952.
The work, which was subsequently
taken over by the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, was examined and restored
by a restoration expert in the museum, whose importance was to rediscover the
real appearances of Modigliani’s work. This work, which has been restored,
recovered the color of the model's face that was deteriorated to beige to its
original peach color. In addition, the overall color was changed by altering
the blue and gray tones of the work, and the restored bright colors made this
work more vivid and the background of the work now properly can be seen.
Comparison of restoration (before vs. after)
In addition, a thick layer of
non-original varnish, both oxidized and yellowed, which was present in the work
was removed by the restoration. After the restoration, another truth that was
revealed is that Modigliani used the impasto technique, painting very thick
layers to show maximum texture and three-dimensional effect in the work.
Impasto tracings
Thank you.
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