Handwritten Inscription Reveals Early Provenance of Unknown Modigliani Portrait

A previously unknown portrait by the revered artist Amedeo Modigliani has been authenticated at the Italian Court of Venice following several years of detailed analyses. Among the many elements examined, a simple handwritten inscription on the back of the painting provides a unique and charming insight into the early journey of this lost artwork.

The exciting portrait in question is from a private collection and features the artist’s wife Jeanne Hébuterne, being of similar composition to its larger counterpart in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Analysis identifies the piece as one of the preparatory studies and sketches that Modigliani is known to have made as part of his practice. This and several further intriguing features elucidate the painting’s early story and initial provenance.

For those who visit auction houses and trawl antique stores for undiscovered treasures, the potential importance of a humble inscription cannot be overstated. As a prime example, in this case, turning the portrait over to see its reverse reveals a note inscribed in blue from Modigliani’s friend and collaborator, Léopold Zborowski.

Zborowski was Modigliani’s primary art dealer from 1916 until the artist’s untimely death on January 24, 1920. While Modigliani was little known outside of Paris at the time of his passing, this would soon change as Zborowski took ownership of numerous paintings from the artist’s atelier and began to build both Modigliani’s fame and his own fortune from them.

In casual cursive, the inscription is affectionately addressed to a recipient named Durini, identified during the course of analysis as Giuseppe Durini, Baron of Bolognano. It states that the portrait was painted by Modigliani in 1919 and is signed by Zborowski and dated “Paris, March 30, 1920,” shortly after the artist’s death.

Dr. Milena Bellato, a judicial graphologist and technical consultant for the Italian Court of Venice, conducted a detailed examination to verify the inscription’s origin, comparing the handwritten note to previously authenticated documents penned by Zborowski. Her positive conclusion supports further expert analysis of the painting, building a fascinating sense of the circumstances surrounding its creation.

The petite portrait, measuring 27.5 x 19.2 cm, is painted on wooden panel, which was a lesser-used support for Modigliani who generally favored canvas, paper, and card. However, the artist is known to have used other surfaces as seen in the biography Jeanne Modigliani tells Modigliani (1984) where his daughter recounts that her father once painted the portrait of his friend Chaim Soutine on a door. In supporting analysis, art critic and historian Professor Saverio Simi de Burgis suggested that in this case Modigliani had made use of the lid of a cigar box.

Confirmation that the materials present in the painting are consistent with those available during the artist’s lifetime was given following, microscopic, X-ray, and Infrared analysis carried out in the laboratory of Thierry Radelet in Torino and Raman microscopy carried out in the laboratory of the Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. However, it is undoubtedly the charming details of creation and early provenance that will drive interest in this new addition to the cataloged works of Amedeo Modigliani.