Portrait of Paul Alexandre

Prints and Drawings

c. 1909

Amedeo Modigliani
Italian, 1884–1920

After studying art in Italy, Modigliani moved to Paris, where he met the dermatologist Paul Alexandre. Alexandre would become Modigliani’s first patron, who eventually amassed a large collection of the artist’s work. Even though Alexandre found sitting for a portrait exhausting, he became the subject for several works. In this study for an oil painting, Modigliani captured the salient features of the doctor’s face: the sharp part in his hair and his piercing stare.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Amedeo Modigliani
Title: Portrait of Paul Alexandre
Origin: Italy
Date: Made 1904–1914
Medium: Black fabricated chalk on cream wove paper
Inscriptions: Inscribed recto, lower right, in pen and black ink: "A105" or "4,05" [?]
Dimensions: 199 × 270 mm
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2013.982
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Osvaldo Patani, Amedeo Modigliani, Catalogo Generale, Disegni, 1906-1920 con i disegni provenienti dalla collezione Paul Alexandre (Milan, 1994), p. 350, cat. 776.
Suzanne Folds McCullagh (ed.), Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago, 2006), p. 163, cat. 116 (ill.).

Venice, Palazzo Grassi,”The Unknown Modigliani: Drawings from the Collection of Paul Alexandre, 1993–1996,” cat. 410, cat. 334 (ill.); also London, Cologne, Madrid, New York, Florence, Montreal, and Rouen.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, p. 163, cat. 116 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” March 15-June 15, 2014, no cat.

The artist to Paul Alexandre, Paris; by descent within the Alexandre family; sold, Sotheby’s, London, Dec. 8, 1999, lot 216, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.

Patani 776

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