Café singer

Identification

Published titles

English: Woman with a pendant.
French: Café singer / Chanteuse de café-concert.

Date

1917. Lanthemann dated the canvas 1918.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

92.4 × 60.3 cm (Pfannstiel: 92 × 73 cm).

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., inv. 1963.10.44. Chester Dale Bequest, 1963.

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. Menier Collection, Paris.
3. Arthur Tooth and Sons, London.
4. Chester Dale Collection, New York, acquired 6 May 1927.
5. National Gallery of Art, Washington, inv. 1963.10.44, Chester Dale Bequest, 1963.

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.

• André Salmon, 1926, pl. 10.¹
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929 presumed catalogue, p. 36.²
• Maud Dale, Modigliani, New York, Knopf, 1929, no. 41, dated 1917, as Chanteuse de café-concert.
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 220, 92 × 73 cm.³
• National Gallery of Art summary catalogues, 1965, 1968, 1975, 1985.
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 303, dated 1918.⁴
• John Walker, National Gallery of Art, Washington, rev. ed., New York, 1984, p. 586, no. 900.

Exhibitions

• London, Arthur Tooth and Sons, 1926, no. 11.
• New York, Demotte, 1931, no. 17.
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Chester Dale Collection, 1943–51.
• Washington, National Gallery of Art, Chester Dale Bequest, 1965.
• Washington, National Gallery of Art, Modigliani: An Anniversary Exhibition, 1983–84.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 191, 80.5 × 45 cm, dated 1917, with reference to a 1927 sale and a Bignou provenance (the same D’Atri number is also attached in this investigation to the NGA green blouse).

This investigation records holes at the corners of the canvas.

This investigation records a drawn ear painted over the colour.

This investigation records a related café singer dated 1918 in a private collection.

The National Gallery of Art titles the canvas Café Singer, 1917, oil on canvas, 92.4 × 60.3 cm, inv. 1963.10.44, Chester Dale Collection. The museum’s published provenance is Léopold Zborowski; G. Menier; Arthur Tooth and Sons; sold 6 May 1927 to Chester Dale; bequest 1963.

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.