Born of Jewish parents in the Italian coastal town of Leghorn, Amedeo Modigliani settled in Paris in 1906, where he developed friendships with Pablo Picasso , the poet Max Jacob, the sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and other members of the literary and artistic avant-garde, many of whom appear in his portraits. He led a notoriously bohemian life, shortened by a self-destructive use of alcohol and drugs. Modigliani produced his finest paintings between 1914 and his premature death in 1920. Within a limited range of subjects, mainly portraits and nudes, he developed a highly distinctive style of sensitively elongated forms. In this portrait, Modigliani’s emphasis is on a strong formal structure dominated by the grid in the background and the echoing curves of the sitter’s hat, shoulders, and features. There is none of the pathos often associated with his work. The artist seems instead to have invested this portrait with a note of ironic detachment, even humor, reflected in both the title of the painting (which refers to Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France) and the expression of amused inscrutability worn by the sitter. Were painter and sitter perhaps both amused by the flamboyant hat? Modigliani’s skill in rhyming forms, while at the same time keeping us visually interested and slightly off-balance, is evident throughout the picture, which resonates with the lessons of Paul Cezanne, Cubism, and African sculpture. The sitter for this portrait may well have been Beatrice Hastings, an English poetess who was Modigliani’s mistress at the time. Because of the artist’s tendency to generalize his sitter’s features, however, a comparison of this portrait with others of Hastings is inconclusive. —Entry, Margherita Andreotti, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2, The Joseph Winterbotham Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago (1994), p. 150-151.
Date
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Signed, l.r.: "modigliani"; inscribed and dated, l.c.: "Madam/Pompadour/1915"
Dimensions
61.1 × 50.2 cm (24 1/16 × 19 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Joseph Winterbotham Collection
Reference Number
1938.217
IIIF Manifest
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Cocteau, Jean, 1re exposition: Kisling, Matisse, Modigliani, Ortiz de Zarate, Picasso, Sculptures négres exh. cat. (Paris: Lyre et Palette, 1916), n.p., no. 13, as Madame Pompadour.
Guillaume, Paul, Les arts à Paris, December 15, 1918, n.p., no. 3.
Pfannstiel, Arthur, Modigliani: L’art et la vie (Paris: Éditions Marcel Seheur, 1929), p. 7, as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Rothschild, Carol, “Recent Museum Acquisitions,” Parnassus 11, no. 8 (December, 1939), p.38, as Madame Pompadour.
Sweet, Frederick A., “Modigliani and Chirico,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 33, no. 6 (1939), pp. 90–91 (ill.), as Madam Pompadour.
Kuh, Katherine, The Winterbotham Collection exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1947), p. 31 (ill.), as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Descargues, Pierre, Amedeo Modigliani: 1884–1920 (Paris: Les editions Braun et cie, 1951), n.p., pl. 14 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Soby, James Thrall, Modigliani: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture exh. cat. (New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1951), p. 51, as Madam[e] Pompadour, 1915.
di San Lazzaro, Gualtieri, Modigliani (Paris: Éditions du Chêne, 1953), p. 6 (ill., no. 20), n.p., as Mme de Pompadour.
Jedlicka, Gotthard, Modigliani: 1884–1920 (Zurich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1953), p. 82, pl. 10 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Contemporary Arts Museum, Modigliani exh. cat. (Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1954), n.p., cat. 5, as Madame Pompadour.
Lipchitz, Jacques, Amedeo Modigliani 1884–1920 (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1954), n.p., pl. 15 (ill.), as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Society of the Four Arts, Amedeo Modigliani 1884–1920 exh. cat. (Palm Beach, Fla.: Society of the Four Arts, 1954), cat. 11, as Madame Pompadour, c. 1915.
Pfannstiel, Arthur, Modigliani et son oeuvre (Paris: La Bibliothéque des arts, 1956), pp. 68, 73 (ill.), cat. 43, pl. 11, as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
“Art Appreciation Series—Amedeo Modigliani,” Art and Activities 42, no. 2 (October 1957), pp. [26] (ill.) and 27, as Madame Pompadour.
Ceroni, Ambroglio, Amedeo Modigliani: peintre (Milan: Edizioni del Milione, 1958), p. 47, cat. 42 (ill.), as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Schoener, Allon T., Amedeo Modigliani exh. cat. (Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, 1959), no. 9, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 315, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Salmon, André, Modigliani: A Memoir, trans. by Dorothy and Randolph Weaver (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1961), ill. opp. p. 129, as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Arts Council of Great Britain and Edinburgh Festival Society, Modigliani exh. cat. (Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Academy, 1963), p. 15, no. 9, pl. 4. (ill.), as Madam [sic] Pompadour, 1915.
Barry, Edward, “Wonderful World of Art: A Legacy that Grows—Winterbotham Collection,” Chicago Tribune (August 25, 1963), as Madam Pompadour.
Speyer, A. James, “Twentieth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture,” Apollo 84, no. 55 (September 1966), p. 225, as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Diehl, Gaston, Modigliani (New York: Crown Publishers, 1969), pp. 37 (ill.), 73, 84, n.p., as “Madam” Pompadour, 1915.
Gindertael, R. V., Modigliani e Montparnasse (Milan: Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1969), p. 15, pl. IX, as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Ceroni, Ambrogio, and Leone Piccioni, I dipinti di Modigliani, Classici dell’arte 40 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1970), p. 90 (ill.), cat. 57, pl. VIII (ill.), as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Lanthemann, J., Modigliani, 1884–1920: Catalogue raisonné, Sa vie, son Oeuvre complet, son art (Barcelona: Gráficas Condal, 1970), pp. 112, 178 (ill.), cat. 74, as Madame Pompadour (B. Hastings?), 1915.
Fifield, William, Modigliani (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1976), p. 184, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Sakai, Tadayasu and Toshio Yamanashi, eds., Modigliani: Love and Nostalgia for Montparnasse exh. cat. (Tokyo: Mainichi Newspapers, 1979), n.p., cat. 6 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Mann, Carol, Modigliani (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980), pp. 109–110 (ill.), 212, cat. 75, as Beatrice Hastings as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Zurcher, Bernhard, Modigliani (Paris: Fernand Hazan, 1980), p. 29 (no. 10), n.p. (ill.) as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Speyer, A. James, and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth-Century European Paintings (Chicago, 1980), p. 57, cat. 2G12, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Carneiro, Helio, “Modigliani: Paris redescobre o gênio maldito,” La Manchete
(summer 1981), pp. 85 (ill.), 87, as Mme. Pompadour, 1916.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Amedeo Modigliani 1884–1920 exh. cat. (Paris, 1981), p. 115 (ill), cat. 26, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Prat, Véronique, “Amedeo Modigliani: Justice pour un prince ivrogne,” Le Figaro (March 21, 1981), pp. 104, 106 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Hoog, Michel, Catalogue de la collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1984), p. 144 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, cat. only.
Roy, Claude, Modigliani, trans. by James Emmons and Stuart Gilbert (New York: Skira, 1985), pp. 42 (ill.), 155, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Joseph Winterbotham Collection: A Living Tradition (Chicago: Art Institute, 1986), pp. 30 (ill.), 58, 63, as Madam Pompadour (Beatrice Hastings), 1915.
Benezra, Neal, “A Study in Irony: Modigliani’s Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz,” Museum Studies 12, no, 2 (Art Institute of Chicago: 1986), pp. 196 (ill.), 197, fig. 14, as Beatrice Hastings as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Castieau-Barreille, Thérèse, La vie et l’oeuvre de Amedeo Modigliani (Paris: ACR Édition Vilo, 1987), p. 131 (ill.), as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Delacroix to Matisse exh. cat. (Leningrad: Hermitage Museum, 1988), pp. 48–49 (ill.), cat. 49, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Parisot, Christian, Modigliani (Livorno: Graphis Arte, 1988), pp. 80, 81 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Parisot, Christian, Modigliani: Catalogue raisonné, dessins, aquarelles, 1 (Livorno: Editions Graphis Arte, 1990), pp. 80, 81 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Parisot, Christian, Modigliani: Catalogue raisonné, peintures, dessins, aquarelles, 2 (Livorno: Editions Graphis Arte, 1991), pp. 79 (ill.), 281–82, cat. 19/1915, as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Patani, Osvaldo, Amedeo Modigliani: Catalogo generale 1 (Milan: Leonardo Editore, 1991), p. 89 (ill.), cat. 61, as Madame Pompadour (Beatrice Hastings), 1915.
Schmalenbach, Werner, Amedeo Modigliani: Malerei, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen exh. cat. (Prestel-Verlag, 1991), pp. 42, 78 (ill.), 220, cat. 20, pl. 30, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection,” Museum Studies 20, no. 2 (1994), pp. 150, 151 (ill.), 185 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Baldacci, Paolo, Giorgio de Chirico: Betraying the Muse, de Chirico and the Surrealists exh. cat. (New York: Finarte, 1994), p. 16 (ill.).
Butler, Stephen, Modigliani (London: Studio Editions, 1994), pp. 62, 63 (ill.), as Portrait of Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Shiff, Bennett, “A Line as Clear and Tensile as a Lightning Flash,” Smithsonian 24, no. 10 (January 1994), pp. 64, 65 (ill.), 72, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Kruszynski, Anette, Amedeo Modigliani: Portraits and Nudes (New York: Prestel, 1996), pp. 54, 59 (ill.), 119, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Krystof, Doris, Amedeo Modigliani, 1884–1920: The Poetry of Seeing (Köln: Taschen, 1996), p. 33, as Portrait of Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Christie’s New York, Impressionist and Modern Paintings from a Texas Foundation sale cat. (November 11, 1997), p. 28 (ill.), 29, fig. 2, as Madame Pompadour (Beatrice Hastings), 1915.
Wayne, Kenneth, Modigliani and the Artists of Montparnasse, exh. cat. (New York, 2002), pp. 65, 67 (ill.), 69, 202–203, fig. 27 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915, cat. only.
Restillini, Marc, Modigliani: L’ange au visage grave exh. cat. (Paris: Musée Luxembourg, 2003), pp. 37, 46, 59, 214, 215 (ill.), cat. 35, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Sotheby’s New York, Impressionist and Modern Art, Part 1 sale cat. (May 6, 2004), pp. 60 (ill., fig. 1), 61, as Madame Pompadour, 1915.
Klein, Mason, ed., Modigliani: Beyond the Myth exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005), p. 51, 84, 85, 120 (ill.), pl. 35, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Chiappini, Rudi, ed., Modigliani (Milan: Skira, 2006), pp. 29, 31 (ill.), fig. 15, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Sarab’yanov, Dmitriy, “Canon Modigliani,” in Modigliani, exh. cat. (Moscow: Red Square Publishing, 2007), pp. 23, 52 (cat. 28), 53 (ill.).
Barbara Buckley, Simonetta Fraquelli, Nancy Ireson, Annette King, eds., Modigliani Up Close, ext. cat. (Philadelphia: The Barnes Foundation, 2022), 6, 60-63, cat. 6, 60-63 (color ills.), 75.
Yaëlle Biro, Simonetta Fraquelli, Cécile Girardeau, Marie-Amélie Senot, Modigliani: A Painter and His Art Dealer, exh. cat. (Paris: Flammarion, 2024), 22, 26, 78, 106, 107 (color ill.), 152, 158.
Paris, Lyre et Palette, 1re exposition: Kisling, Matisse, Modigliani, Ortiz de Zarate, Picasso, Sculptures négres, November 19–December 5, 1916, cat. 13.
Paris, Galerie Paul Guillaume, Exposition peintres d’aujourd’hui, December 15–23, 1918, cat. 26.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Winterbotham Collection, May 23–June 22, 1947, p. 31 (ill.), as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Winterbotham Collection of Twentieth-Century European Paintings, October 8–November 6, 1949, no cat.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Modigliani: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, April 11–June 10, 1951, p. 51, as Madam[e] Pompadour, 1915; traveled to Cleveland Museum of Art, January 30–March 18, 1951.
Coral Gables, Fla., University of Miami, Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century French Painting, March 18–April 6, 1952, no. 28; traveled to Athens, University of Georgia, April 14–May 19, 1952.
Palm Beach, Fla., Society of the Four Arts, Amedeo Modigliani 1884–1920, January 8–31, 1954, cat. 11, as Madame Pompadour, c. 1915; traveled to Coral Gables, Fla., University of Miami, Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery, February 11–28, 1954.
Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum, Modigliani, April 15–May 23, 1954, n.p., cat. 5, as Madame Pompadour.
Cincinnati Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center, Amedeo Modigliani, April 18–May 20, 1959, no. 9, as Madam Pompadour, 1915; traveled to Chicago, Arts Club, January 30–February 28, 1959, and Milwaukee Art Center, March 5–April 1, 1959.
Edinburgh, Arts Council of Great Britain and Edinburgh Festival Society (organizers) Modigliani, p. 15, no. 9, pl. 4. (ill.), as Madam [sic] Pompadour, 1915; traveled to Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, August 17–September 16, 1963, and London, Tate Gallery, September 28–November 3, 1963.
Tokyo, Mainichi Newspapers in cooperation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (organizers), Modigliani: Love and Nostalgia for Montparnasse, n.p., cat. 6 (ill.), as Madame Pompadour, 1915; traveled to Tokyo, Daimaru Museum, September 13–October 16, 1979, and Osaka, Daimaru Museum Shinsaibashi, October 25–November 6, 1979.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Amedeo Modigliani 1884–1920, March 26–June 28, 1981, p. 115 (ill), cat. 26, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer), Delacroix to Matisse, pp. 48–49 (ill.), cat. 49, as Madam Pompadour, 1915; traveled to Leningrad, Hermitage Museum, March 15–May 10, 1988, and Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10–July 30, 1988.
Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Amedeo Modigliani: Malerei, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, January 19–April 1, 1991, pp. 78 (ill.), 220, cat. 20, pl. 30, as Madam Pompadour, 1915; traveled to Zurich, Kunsthaus, April 19–July 7, 1991.
Paris, Musée Luxembourg, Modigliani: L’ange au visage grave, October 23, 2002–March 2, 2003, pp. 37, 46, 59, 214, 215 (ill.), cat. 35, as Madam Pompadour, 1915.
New York, Jewish Museum, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, May 21–September 19, 2004, pp. 51, 84, 85, 120 (ill., pl. 35), 203, as Madam Pompadour, 1915; traveled to the Art Gallery of Ontario, October 23, 2004–January 23, 2005; and Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection, February 19–May 29, 2005.
Moscow, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Modigliani March 21–June 17, 2007, pp. 23, 52 (cat. 28), 53 (ill.), as Madam Pompadour, 1915
Philadelphia, The Barnes Foundation, Modigliani Up Close, Oct. 16, 2022–Jan. 29, 2023, cat. 6.
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, Amedeo Modigliani. A Painter and his Dealer, Sept. 20, 2023–Jan. 15, 2024, cat. 68.
Paul Guillaume (died 1934), Paris, acquired directly from the artist probably by 1916–c. 1929 [Wayne 2002 and Pfannsteil 1929]. Madame Lederlin, Paris, by 1933 [Collection de Madame Lederlin, Galerie Jean Charpentier, March 22–23, 1933, lot. 134]. Valentine-Dudensing Gallery, New York, by December 29, 1937 [letter from Daniel Catton Rich to Joseph Winterbotham, December 29, 1937, in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1938.
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