Anna Zborowska seated

Identification

Published titles

English: Hanka Zborowska seated on a divan; Anna Zborowska seated.
French: Portrait of Madame Z; Portrait of Madame B.

Date

1917.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

130.2 × 81.3 cm.

Signature

Unsigned (reverse not seen).

Present location

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, inv. 87.1934. Bequest of Lillie P. Bliss, 1934.

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. Amedeo Modigliani (1917).
2. Léopold Zborowski, Paris (1917–26).
3. Galerie Pierre, Paris (1929?).
4. Valentine Gallery, New York (1929).
5. Lillie P. Bliss, New York, acquired 21 October 1929.
6. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, inv. 87.1934, Bliss bequest 1934.

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.

• The Little Review, autumn–winter 1923–24, repr. p. 77.
• André Salmon, 1926, pl. 4.¹
• Chester Dale, 1929, pl. 2.²
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929, p. 20; 1956, no. 129.³
• Alfred H. Barr, Jr., MoMA collection catalogues, 1942, no. 441; 1948, p. 61.
• Jacques Lipchitz, 1954, pl. 58.⁴
• Jeanne Modigliani, 1958, no. 40.⁵
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 189 (the source bibliography also cites no. 177).⁶
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 177 (the source bibliography also cites no. 160).⁷
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 183.⁸
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 4/1917.⁹
• Mason Klein, 2004, p. 154, pl. 70.¹⁰
• Simonetta Fraquelli, 2006, p. 130, no. 43.¹¹
• Nancy Ireson and Simonetta Fraquelli, 2017, p. 193.¹²

Exhibitions

• New York, Demotte, Amedeo Modigliani, 1931; MoMA, Lillie P. Bliss Memorial Exhibition, 1931.
• MoMA collection and Bliss Collection tours, 1932–64.
• Cleveland and New York, MoMA, 1951.
• Rome, VI Quadriennale, 1952, no. 11.
• Palm Beach, Miami and Houston, 1954; San Antonio, 1957, no. 6; Cincinnati, Chicago and Milwaukee, 1959.
• Tokyo and Osaka, Daimaru, 1979, no. 10; Liège, 1980, no. 14; Paris, MAMVP, 1981, no. 42.
• Düsseldorf and Zurich, 1991, no. 51.
• New York, Toronto and Washington, Beyond the Myth, 2004–05.
• London, Royal Academy, 2006, no. 43; Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2008; Bonn, 2009, no. 80.
• London, Tate Modern, 2017–18.

Notes

Possibly D’Atri papers no. 225 (size 116 × 73 cm), provenance Zborowski, Paris, 1929.

Infrared images published in this investigation show the drawn contour in oil and late adjustments in the construction of the face.

This investigation records holes at the corners of the support. One is covered by restoration but still visible.

The Museum of Modern Art confirms Anna Zborowska, 1917, oil on canvas, 130.2 × 81.3 cm, inv. 87.1934, Lillie P. Bliss Collection. The museum’s published provenance is the artist; Léopold and Anna Zborowska, 1917 to at least 1926; Galerie Pierre, Paris; Valentine Gallery, New York, by 1929; purchased by Lillie P. Bliss on 21 October 1929; bequest 1931/1934.

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