Caryatid bended Knee - the coffee bean

Oil on canvas — 1911-12 - 13 ?

Identification

Title

English: Caryatid bended Knee - the coffee bean - Caryatid.

Date

1911-12 - 13 ?

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

72.9 × 50,1 cm ( | Ceroni, Pfannstiel - 73 × 50 - Parisot, Patani 72.5 × 50 - MR 75.5 × 50 - d'Atri 73 × 50 - Klein 72.5 × 50)

Signature

Unsigned

Present location

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf ( Inv. no. 0128)

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. Amedeo Modigliani
2. Paul Alexandre (1929 still in his possession)
3. Galerie Berggruen, Paris
4. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf since 1962

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.

• Pfannstiel, "catalogue présumé" Modigliani. L'Art et la Vie. Preface de Louis Latourrettes, Seheur, Paris, 1929, p. 5¹
• Jedlicka, Modigliani, E. Rentsch, Zürich, 1953, pl. 8
• Pfannstiel, Modigliani et son oeuvre, étude critique et catalogue raisonne, Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris, 1956 - no. 21²
• Roy , Modigliani, Skira, Lausanne, 1958, p. 48³
• F. Russoli, Amedeo Modigliani, Milano, 1958 p. 22
• Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani: Peintre; Suivi des Souvenirs de Lunia Czechowska, Edizioni del Milione, 1958 - no. 27⁴
• Jeanne Modigliani, Modigliani: Man and Myth, Orion Press, New York, 1958, p. 64-75⁵
• Russoli, Amedeo Modigliani, Exhib. catalogue Palazzo Reale, Edizioni dell'ente manifestazioni Milanesi, Milano, 1958, p. 22
• Modigliani J. , Modigliani sans légende, Gruend, Paris, 1961, p. 64,75⁶
• Catalogue Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1968, p. 54
• Werner, Amedeo Modigliani, 1968, p. 42⁷
• Musée de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1968, p. 42
• Lanthemann, Modigliani, catalogue raisonné: sa vie, son oeuvre, son art, G. Condal, Barcelona, 1970 - no. 532, dated in 1911⁸
• Ceroni & Piccioni, Il dipinti di Modigliani, Rizzoli, Milano, 1970 - no. 35⁹
• Nakayama, 1974, pl. 3
• Schmalenbach, Picasso to Lichtenstein : masterpieces of twentieth-century art from this Nordrhein-Westfalen collection in Düsseldorf, Tate Gallery Publications, 1974 - no. 89, pp.200-201¹⁰
• Musée de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, p. 107, no. 12
• Parisot, Modigliani, caja de pensiones, ed. Poligrafía, Barcelona, 1983, p. 79, no. 8
• Jeanne Modigliani,
• Racconta Modigliani, Graphis Arte 1984, page 225
• C. Roy Modigliani, Paris, 1985, p. 49³
• Tokyo, Modigliani, Orion press, 1989, no. 3
• Anna Ceroni, les nus, 1989, p. 44
• Schmalenbach, Amedeo Modigliani, Prestel, Munich, 1990, p. 11 - no. 9¹⁰
• Parisot, Catalogue Raisonné Modigliani, Graphis Arte, 1991 - no. 2/1913¹¹
• Patani, Catalogo Generale, Leonardo, Milano, 1991-94 - no. 39¹²
• Parisot, Modigliani, Pierre Terrail, Paris, 1992, p.46¹³
• MR, L'Ange au visage grave, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2002, p.148-149, no. 15¹⁴
• Klein, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, Jewish Museum, New York, 2004, p. 102, pl. 17 - dated c. 1911¹⁵
• Soto Caba, Modigliani, the timeless face, Libsa, 2007¹⁶
• R, Le silence éternel, Pinacotheque de Paris, 2008, p.29¹⁷
• Klein, Modigliani unmasked, Jewish Museum, New York, 2018¹⁵

Exhibitions

• Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle, 1963 - no. 54
• München, 1972 - no. 1879
• London, Picasso to Lichtenstein : masterpieces of twentieth-century art from this Nordrhein-Westfalen collection in Düsseldorf, Tate Gallery, 1974 - no. 89
• Tokyo ,Love and Nostalgia for Montparnasse, Daimaru, 1979 - no. 2
• Osaka,Love and Nostalgia for Montparnasse , Daimaru, 1979 - no. 2
• Liege, Modigliani exhibition. Musée Saint Georges, 1980 - no. 2
• Barcelona, Modigliani, Centro Cultural de la Caixa de pensiones,Curated by Christian Parisot, 1983 - no. 8
• Madrid, Modigliani, Sala de exposiciones la caja de pensiones, Curated by Christian Parisot, 1983 - no. 8
• Paris, Amedeo Modigliani, Musée de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981, p. 107 - no. 12
• Düsseldorf , Amedeo Modigliani, Art Gallery of Nordrhein-Westfalen 1991 - no. 9
• Zurich, Amedeo Modigliani, Kunsthaus, 1991 - no. 9
• Paris, Modigliani: l'Ange au visage grave, Musée du Luxembourg, 2002, no. 15
• Toronto, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, The Art Gallery of Ontario, 2004 - 2005
• Moscow, Meeting Modigliani, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, 2007
• Bonn, Amedeo Modigliani: Ein Mythos der Moderne, Bundesrepublik, 2009 - no. 19
• New York, Modigliani unmasked, Jewish Museum, 2018

Notes

Museum record (verified): Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (inv. 0128). Oil on canvas, c. 73 × 50 cm, 1911/12. Title: Caryatid / Karyatide (bended knee / “coffee bean”).

no. 209 in D' Atri papers - dated in 1910 located in Alexandre collection in 1929

This is one of the most interesting paintings to read.

1.- Next to the head of the caryatid there is another head in brown mixed with the background, almost as if it were on the shadows of the front one:

The hair style is absolutelly similar to the ones used in classical greek sculpture showing a more mediterranean aspect instead of african

Turn the image 180º you discover a new painting and a simple glimpse to the egyptian sculptures, an open door to speculation:

The inversion may be a working experiment.

A Maldoror reading has been proposed in some literature.

The painting framed at the exhib. Jewish Museum 2018:

Where sources disagree, both readings are given. This is a working research page, not a catalogue raisonné.