Man with a Pipe (The Notary of Nice)

Identification

Published titles

English: Man with a Pipe (The Notary of Nice); Man with a White Beard; The Notary of Nice; Man with a Pipe.
French: Le Niçois; Le Niçois à la casquette fumant sa pipe.

Date

1918–19 in the 2026 Sotheby’s catalogue and in MR’s 2026 catalogue raisonné (no. 317). Ceroni, Lanthemann and Parisot date the work 1919. Pfannstiel dates it 1920.

Medium

Oil on canvas.

Dimensions

92.1 × 54.3 cm (Sotheby’s, 2026).

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Private collection. Sold at Sotheby’s, London, 24 June 2026, from the Lewis 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. Roger Dutilleul, Paris (acquired circa 1919; Sotheby’s, 2026).
2. Geneviève and Jean Masurel, Paris and Roubaix (by inheritance, circa 1956).
3. David Lewis Collection, United Kingdom (acquired from the above).
4. Sotheby’s, London, Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection, 24 June 2026, lot 21, estimate £12,000,000–18,000,000, sold for £23,300,000.
5. 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.

• Jean Cocteau, 1950 (1952 ed.), pl. 23.¹
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 359, as The Notary of Nice, dated 1920, Dutilleul Collection.²
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1958, no. 115.³
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 356, dated 1919.⁴
• Ambrogio Ceroni and Leone Piccioni, 1970, no. 288, as Man with a pipe, the Notary of Nice (?), dated 1919.⁵
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 24/1919.⁶
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 300.⁷
• MR, Amedeo Modigliani. Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, New Haven and London, 2026, vol. 5, no. 317, p. 136
  ( Source Sotheby's auction file Link)

Exhibitions

• Paris, Galerie Montaigne, 1920, no. 21.
• Paris, Galerie Marcel Bernheim, 1931, no. 28, as Man with white beard, dated 1919.
• Jeu de Paume, 1932–33.
• Jeu de Paume, 1935, no. 86
• Paris, Galerie de France, 1945–46, no. 32, as The old man from Nice.
• Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Cent tableaux de Modigliani, 1958, no. 98, as Le Niçois.
• Marseille, Musée Cantini, 1958, no. 37.
• Milan, Palazzo Reale, 1958, no. 45.
• Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, 1959, no. 46.
• Nice, 1960, no. 93.
• Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1963, no. 41.
• London, Tate Gallery, 1963, no. 41.
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 85.
  This investigation records this as the last public exhibition noted.

Notes

Not listed in the D’Atri papers.

Recorded as stolen during the Second World War (lost-works number 264454; inv. AI1632, titled Le notaire).
Wartime status: The work appears in historical wartime lost/stolen records under no. 264454, inv. AI1632, as Le Notaire. However, the painting is demonstrably extant: it was exhibited in Paris as late as 1981 and was subsequently offered and sold by Sotheby's London on 24 June 2026 (Lot 21). The circumstances by which the wartime lost/stolen record was resolved remain to be documented.

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