This striking portrait exemplifies Modigliani’s distinctive personal style, where influences from African primitive art blend with bold modernity.
The female figure, with her characteristic elongated neck, emerges from a vaporous blue-gray background that lends the work a melancholic atmosphere. The treatment of the almond-shaped eyes, in luminous blue, creates a hypnotic gaze that seems to transcend the canvas.
The apparent simplicity of the composition—a somber black bust against a monochromatic background—is elevated by the painter’s expressive handling, particularly in the delicate treatment of the hand emerging from the dark garment. The face with its stylized features, tapered nose, and finely drawn lips perfectly embodies the quest for refinement that characterizes the artist’s work. The restricted color palette reinforces the emotional power of the portrait, creating a dramatic tension between formal elegance and the subject’s psychological intensity.
Further information
Woman with Blue Eyes, Amedeo Modigliani, c. 1918
81 x 54 cm
Musée d’Art moderne de Paris, Paris Musées
https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-d-art-moderne/oeuvres/femme-aux-yeux-bleus
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) embodies the figure of the cursed artist of early 20th-century Montparnasse. Italian-born, he settled in Paris in 1906 where he developed a unique, instantly recognizable style, influenced by both primitive art and Italian Mannerism. His tumultuous life, marked by illness, alcohol, and drugs, ended tragically at age 35 in absolute destitution. His companion Jeanne Hébuterne committed suicide two days after his death while pregnant with their second child. Art history remembers him for these portraits with elongated necks and almond eyes, which became emblematic of a modernity both classical and revolutionary.
