Blonde with earrings

Identification

Published titles

English: Young blond woman with earrings.
French: Blonde with earrings; La blonde aux boucles d’oreille.

Date

1917 in Ceroni, Parisot and Patani. Pfannstiel 1956 and Lanthemann date the work 1918; some exhibition catalogues used 1918–19.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

46 × 29.8 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right in red.

Present location

Private collection?

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. Georges Renand, Paris.
2. Sale, Parke-Bernet, 3 April 1968.
3. Perls Galleries, New York.
4. Private collection, New York.
5. Sale, Christie’s, New York, 12 November 1985, lot 50.
6. Private collection, United States.
7. Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 1 November 2011, sale 2477, lot 4 (estimate USD 3,000,000–4,000,000; sold USD 8,146,500).
8. Private collection?

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, 1956, no. 344 (dated 1918).¹
• Franco Russoli, Palazzo Reale exhibition catalogue, Milan, 1958, pl. 24.
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 297 (dated 1918).²
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 205 (dated 1917).³
• Christian Parisot, 1991 (dated 1917).⁴
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 212 (dated 1917).⁵

Exhibitions

• Vevey, Musée Jenisch, Utrillo, Modigliani, Valadon, 1955.
• Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1957; Cent tableaux de Modigliani, 1958, no. 91 (dated 1918–19).
• Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, 1959, no. 42.
• Marseille, Musée Cantini, 1958, no. 33.
• Frankfurt, Steinernes Haus, 1963, no. 27.

Notes

This investigation marks the work as not located in the D’Atri papers.

This investigation records holes at the corners of the support. Two corner holes are recorded; others may be covered by restoration.

This investigation records a drawn ear painted over the colour.

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