Identification

Published titles

English: Lunia Czechowska in Profile; Madame Czechowska; Lunia “Cekowska”; Woman’s Head in Profile.

Sitter

Lunia Czechowska (1895–1972), friend of Léopold and Hanka Zborowski and a frequent sitter.

Date

Catalogues agree on 1919.

Medium

Recorded as oil on canvas (unconfirmed in this investigation).

Dimensions

This investigation gives 56 × 39 cm. Ceroni, Patani and Parisot record 46 × 33 cm; Pfannstiel records 47 × 33 cm. D’Atri papers: 56 × 39 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Recorded as the Agnelli collection, inherited from Marella Agnelli; the present owner is not independently confirmed.

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. Not documented before Léopold Zborowski, Paris.
2. Netter Collection, Paris.
3. Galerie Bing et Cie, Paris.
4. Riccardo Gualino Collection, Turin (sold 1934).
5. Z. Pisa S.A.F., Milan, 7 February 1934, lot 189, pl. CXXVII.
6. Valdameri Collection, Milan.
7. Frua De Angeli Collection, Milan (by 1946).
8. Possibly a New York private collection; possibly Roundell Dickinson, London.
9. Marella Agnelli Collection, Milan?
10. Agnelli collection (by descent)?

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.

• André Salmon, Modigliani, sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, Éditions des Quatre Chemins, 1926, pl. 34.¹
• Giovanni Scheiwiller, Arte Moderna Italiana no. 8, Milan, Hoepli, 1927, pl. 21.
• Maud Dale, Modigliani, New York, Knopf, 1929, pl. 21.²
• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1929 presumed catalogue, p. 53; 1956, no. 339, as Woman’s Head in Profile (Mme Czechowska), 47 × 33 cm.³
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1958, no. 148; Rizzoli 1970 and French 1972, no. 320, 46 × 33 cm.⁴
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 346.⁵
• Christian Parisot, catalogue raisonné 1991, no. 8/1919, 46 × 33 cm.⁶
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 332.⁷
• Mason Klein, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, New York, The Jewish Museum, 2004, p. 38, pl. 17.⁸

Exhibitions

• Venice, Biennale, Sala XII, 1930, no. 5 (Lionello Venturi).
• Milan, Associazione fra gli amatori e i cultori delle arti figurative contemporanee, 1946, no. 16.
• Catania and Palermo, 40 anni d’arte italiana, 1949, no. 25.
• Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1950, no. 74.
• Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1950.
• Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, 1950.
• London, Tate Gallery, 1950.
• Cleveland Museum of Art and New York, Museum of Modern Art, Modigliani–Soutine, 1951.
• Bern, Kunsthalle, 1955, no. 33.
• Milan, Palazzo Reale, 1958, no. 47.
• Budapest, 1969.
• New York, Acquavella Galleries, 1971, no. 49.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 224, as portrait of Mme Czechowska (tête de profil), 56 × 39 cm, provenance Netter from Zborowski in 1929.

This investigation reproduces an infrared photograph showing drawing in the neck and body, a detail of the eyes, and an orange underdrawing in the ear.

A related profile composition is illustrated in this investigation as a possible sketch.

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