Dr François Brabander

Identification

Published titles

English: Dr François Brabander; Monsieur Brabandier; Man’s Head.

Sitter

Dr François Brabander, brother-in-law of Hanka Zborowska. In an expertise written on the back of a photograph for Lionello Venturi, Hanka Zborowska stated that the portrait was painted in 1918, that it represents her brother-in-law, that he sold it to Venturi in 1933, and that it is the only portrait of him. Later compilers have nevertheless related the head to the seated man called Cérusier in Hiroshima.

Date

Hanka Zborowska: 1918. Pfannstiel, Ceroni, Patani and Parisot: 1919. Ireson and Fraquelli (Tate 2017): 1918.

Medium

Recorded as oil on canvas (unconfirmed).

Dimensions

44.5 × 37.5 cm. Tate exhibition literature: 46 × 38 cm.

Signature

Signed modigliani at top right.

Present location

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, inv. 8.

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. Dr François Brabander, Paris.
2. Lionello Venturi Collection, Paris / Rome (by 1933).
3. Silberman Gallery, New York.
4. Henry Pearlman Collection, New York (by 1954).
5. Gerson Fine Arts, New York.
6. Eric Estorick Collection, London.
7. Gift to the Eric and Salome Estorick Foundation (USA), 1993.
8. Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, inv. 8.

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.

• Arthur Pfannstiel, 1956, no. 351, as M. Brabandier, dated 1919, 46 × 38 cm.
• Tate Gallery, Modern Italian Art from the Estorick Collection, 1957.
• Ambrogio Ceroni, 1958, no. 137; Rizzoli 1970 and French 1972, no. 286.
• Alfred Werner, Paris, Cercle d’Art, 1968, pl. 128.
• Joseph Lanthemann, 1970, no. 318, as Portrait of a Man / Sérusier, dated 1918.
• Osvaldo Patani, 1991–94, no. 298.
• Christian Parisot, 1991, no. 3/1919.
• Nancy Ireson and Simonetta Fraquelli, Tate / Skira Rizzoli, 2017, p. 92, dated 1918.¹

Exhibitions

• Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1933, no. 71.
• Basel, Kunsthalle, 1934, no. 62.
• Palm Beach and Miami, 1954, no. 16.
• London, Tate Gallery, 1956; Plymouth and Birmingham, 1957.
• Berlin, Akademie der Künste, 1957, no. 98.
• Hamilton, Regina College, 1958.
• Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, no. 77.
• Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1990, no. 106.
• Rome, 1997; Genoa, 2002–2003.
• Moscow, Pushkin Museum, 2007.
• Prague, Municipal House (Parisot), 2010–2011.
• Villeneuve-d’Ascq, LaM, 2016; Budapest, 2016; Helsinki, 2016–2017.
• Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, 2017.
• London, Tate Modern, 2017–2018.

Notes

D’Atri papers no. 71, as M. Brabandier, 46 × 38 cm, dated 1919, Venturi collection.

This investigation treats Dr Brabander and “Monsieur Cérusier” as the same sitter despite Hanka Zborowska’s statement that this is the only portrait of her brother-in-law.

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.