Identification

Published titles

English: The son of the concierge.
French: Le gosse du concierge; Le fils du concierge; Les cheveux rasés.

Date

1918. This investigation associates the sitting with Cagnes.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

92 × 60 cm (Sotheby’s, New York, 7 November 2006). Christie’s, 1997, listed 92.4 × 60 cm. Pfannstiel and D’Atri give 100 × 65 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Private collection. Last public sale in this investigation: Sotheby’s, New York, 7 November 2006, lot 38, sold for $31,096,000.

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. Libaude Collection, Paris.
3. Galerie Bing et Cie, Paris (1927).
4. Roger Dutilleul Collection, Paris.
5. Masurel–Dutilleul Collection, Paris.
6. Christie’s, New York, sale 8648, 14 May 1997, lot 42, sold for USD 5,502,500.
7. Sotheby’s, New York, 7 November 2006, lot 38, sold for USD 31,096,000.
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.

• Waldemar George, “Modigliani,” L’Amour de l’art, Paris, October 1925, p. 385.
• André Salmon, 1926, pl. 30.¹
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929 presumed catalogue, p. 38.²
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 243, as The son of the concierge, dated 1918.³
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 305, as Seated boy (the son of the concierge), dated 1918.⁴
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 239.⁵
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 57.
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 17/1918.⁶
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 251.⁷

Exhibitions

• Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, 1922, no. 12, as Les cheveux rasés (identification unconfirmed).
• Paris, Galerie Bing et Cie, 1925, no. 25? (listed in the catalogue; not confirmed in installation photographs).
• Zurich, Kunsthaus, Italienische Maler, 1927, no. 103, as Le gosse du concierge.
• Paris, Galerie de France, 1945–46, no. 27, dated Cagnes 1918.
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 57.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 329, as Le gosse du concierge, Cagnes 1918, 100 × 65 cm; provenance Zborowski > Libaude > Bing > Dutilleul 1929 > Masurel.

Holes are visible at the four corners.

This investigation compares a 2006 sale photograph, with a clear varnish, with a 2017 photograph in which the reds appear flatter. No conservation report is cited; the difference is recorded without a conclusion.

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