Bust of Elena Povolozky

Identification

Published titles

English: Elena; Bust of Elena Povolozky.

Date

1917.

Medium

Oil on canvas? This investigation also records cardboard as a possible support.

Dimensions

45.8 × 33.1 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani / 1917 at bottom right in white; the word ELENA in black at top right. Reverse not recorded.

Present location

Private collection. This investigation records Helly Nahmad as a possible later owner.

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. Eugène Desclaves, Paris.
2. Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 26 April 1926, lot 69.
3. Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris.
4. Sale, Drouot, Paris, 26 February 1932, lot 90.
5. Anonymous sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 6 February 1947, lot 66 (illustrated).
6. Edward A. Bragaline Collection (acquired at the 1947 sale).
7. Sale, Christie’s, New York, 13 May 1999, sale 9162, lot 477 (estimate USD 900,000–1,200,000; sold USD 882,500). Condition report and a photo-certificate from MR / Wildenstein Institute dated Paris, 8 February 1999 are recorded in the sale catalogue published in the documentation assembled for this investigation.
8. Private collection / Helly Nahmad?

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, p. 37, no. 2.¹
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 225.²
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1965, no. 187.³
• M. Knoedler & Co., 20th Century Masters from the Bragaline Collection, 1963, no. 21.
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 196.⁴
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 167.⁵
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 6/1917.⁶
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 172.⁷
• Simonetta Fraquelli, 2006, p. 98, no. 19.⁸

Exhibitions

• Paris, Galerie de France, 1945–46, no. 13.
• New York, Knoedler, Twentieth Century Masters from the Bragaline Collection, 1963, no. 21.
• New York, Acquavella Galleries, 1971, no. 17.
• London, Royal Academy of Arts, Modigliani and His Models, 2006, no. 19.
• Villeneuve-d’Ascq, LaM, L’œil intérieur, 2016.
• Budapest, Hungarian National Gallery, 2016; Helsinki, Ateneum, 2016–17.

Notes

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

The 1999 Christie’s condition report, as printed in this investigation: glue lined; varnished; horizontal crease along the bottom; ultraviolet examination showed retouching in the lower left quadrant of the face and a small cluster of retouches in the lower right background.

This investigation records a strong cleaning of the paint surface.

Another portrait of the same sitter is at the Phillips Collection, Washington (this series, 1917-w-59).

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.