Elvira seated at a table

Identification

Published titles

English: Elvira seated at a table / Elvira resting at a table / Young brunette / Elvira working girl.
French: Elvire enfant du peuple.

Date

1918? The museum dates the canvas circa 1918–19 and titles it Elvira Resting at a Table. The Modigliani Project and Pfannstiel date it 1919.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

92.7 × 60.5 cm (Patani and Modigliani Project: 92.4 × 60.6 cm; Pfannstiel: 92 × 60 cm).

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Saint Louis Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri, inv. 77:1968. Gift of Joseph Pulitzer Jr. in memory of his wife, Louise Vauclain Pulitzer, 1968. The museum titles the canvas Elvira Resting at a Table and dates it circa 1918–19; dimensions 92.7 × 60.5 cm.

Catalogue numbers

Legal note on MR: This investigation has not had access to MR’s catalogue raisonné; all research here is based on open sources, publications and exhibitions. By no means has that catalogue been copied at any point. Modigliani Project and Modigliani Initiative are marked YES when the work is published or otherwise recorded by those projects, even if no catalogue number is assigned; otherwise the field is marked ?.

Provenance

1. Léopold Zborowski, Paris.
2. Simon Collection, Paris (1929; still recorded in 1934).
3. Paul Guillaume, Paris.
4. Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., London.
5. Valentine Gallery (Valentine Dudensing), New York, 1936.
6. Joseph Pulitzer Jr. Collection, St Louis, acquired from Valentine Gallery, 2 March 1936.
7. Saint Louis Art Museum, inv. 77:1968, gift of Joseph Pulitzer Jr. in memory of Louise Vauclain Pulitzer, 1968.

The sequence follows the published museum, sale, and catalogue record in this investigation. Gaps and uncertain transfers are marked as such.

Selected bibliography

Book-length publications are marked with a footnote giving a full citation. Exhibition catalogues appear in both this list and the exhibition list when this investigation recorded them in both places. Where this investigation listed a long run of secondary mentions, only the principal catalogues and museum or sale references are retained here.

• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929 presumed catalogue, p. 51.¹
• Adolphe Basler, Modigliani, Paris, Éditions G. Crès, 1931, pl. 9.
• James Thrall Soby, Cleveland / MoMA, 1951, no. 52.
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 329, dated 1919.²
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1965, no. 205.
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 270, dated 1918.³
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 323, dated 1918.⁴
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 36/1918.⁵
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 283, dated 1918.⁶
• Kenneth Wayne, 2002, p. 115, no. 38, dated 1919.⁷
• Nancy Ireson and Simonetta Fraquelli, Tate Modern, 2017, p. 144.⁸

Exhibitions

• Dresden, Internationale Kunstausstellung, 1926.
• Zurich, Kunsthaus, Italienische Maler, 1927.
• New York, Valentine Gallery, Since Cézanne, 1931–32.
• Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1933, no. 48.
• Basel, Kunsthalle, 1934, no. 40.
• New York, Valentine Gallery, XXth Century French Paintings, 1936.
• Cambridge, Dunster House, Harvard University, 1936.
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, French Art, 1937.
• St Louis, City Art Museum, 20th Century Art, 1941.
• Washington, The Phillips Collection, 1945.
• Paris, Galerie de France, 1945–46, no. 8.
• Cleveland / New York, Modigliani–Soutine, 1951.
• New York, Knoedler, Modern Painting in the Pulitzer Jr. Collection, 1957.
• Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, 1957, no. 46.
• Boston / Los Angeles, 1961, no. 37.
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 72.
• Tokyo / Nagoya, 1985, no. 94.
• Buffalo / Fort Worth / Los Angeles, 2002–03, no. 38.
• London, Tate Modern, 2017–18.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 48, as Elvire, enfant du peuple (Elvire accoudée à une table), 92.5 × 60 cm, dated 1918; provenance Zborowski > Simon 1929 > Guillaume 1933.

This investigation records a drawn ear painted over the colour.

The original documentation assembled for this investigation marked several fields as still being checked. The facts above are those already published; where sources disagree, both readings are given.