Landscape of the Midi

Identification

Published titles

English: Landscape of the Midi / The Italian village. French: Paysage du Midi.

Date

1919 in Ceroni and Patani. MR dates the canvas January 1919. Pfannstiel dates it 1918.

Medium

Oil on canvas, unconfirmed in this investigation.

Dimensions

61 × 46.5 cm, unconfirmed. Ceroni and MR give 60 × 45 cm.

Signature

Signed twice: modigliani at bottom left in black and modigliani at bottom right in white.

Present location

Private collection? Last public sale recorded at Sotheby’s, New York, 9 November 2000.

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. Jonas Netter Collection, Paris (acquired 1929).
3. Libaude Collection, Paris (acquired 1931).
4. Private collection, Switzerland.
5. Carstairs Gallery, New York.
6. Dewey Jr Collection, New York (recorded by 1955; still cited to 1989?).
7. Sotheby’s, New York, 9 May 1989, lot 45, sold for USD 1,700,000.
8. Karsten Greve Gallery, Cologne / Paris (1996).
9. Acquavella Galleries, New York (1999).
10. Steve Wynn collection, Las Vegas; lent to the Bellagio Hotel Collection.
11. Sotheby’s, New York, sale 7545, 9 November 2000, lot 35, sold for USD 1,655,750.
12. Schecter Collection? (cited in 2005 and 2008).

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. 247, as Landscape of the Midi, dated 1918, no size. The entry cites the 1951 Museum of Modern Art Modigliani–Soutine exhibition; this investigation notes that the painting was not in that exhibition.¹
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 293, size given as 60 × 45 cm.²
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 304.³
• R. Chiappini, ed., Lugano 1999, no. 63 (Decrooq entry; size 60 × 45 cm; repeats the 1951 MoMA citation).
• MR, Luxembourg 2002, no. 82, dated January 1919, size 60 × 45 cm.⁴
• Kenneth Wayne, 2002, p. 181, fig. 12, dated 1918–19.⁵
• MR, Le Silence éternel, 2008, p. 139.⁶

Exhibitions

• Cincinnati, The Contemporary Arts Center, 1959, no. 22, dated 1918.
• New York, Acquavella Galleries, 1971, no. 45.
• Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, and Zurich, Kunsthaus, 1991, no. 80.
• Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Ibaraki, Exposition Amedeo Modigliani au Japon, 1992–93, no. 41 (curated by MR).
• Lausanne, Fondation de l’Hermitage, 1994, no. 21.
• Lugano, Museo d’Arte Moderna, 1999, no. 63.
• Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, 2002, no. 82.
• Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2003, no. 58.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 184, as The Italian village (Paysage du Midi), 61 × 45.5 cm, 1918, Cagnes; provenance Zborowski > Netter 1929 > Libaude 1931.

Two signatures are present on the lower edge, one in black and one in white.

A related sketch drawing is reproduced in this investigation.

The 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.