Paul Alexandre before a window panel

Oil on canvas — 1913? (MR dates 1913-1914)

Identification

Title

French: Paul Alexandre before a window panel - Paul Alexandre in front of the window - Paul Alexandre devant un vitrage - Paul Alexandre.

Date

1913? (MR dates 1913-1914)

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

81x 45.6 cm

Signature

Unsigned

Present location

Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts (no. 1988.11.2 ; 2452)

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. Blaise Alexandre Coll.
2. Acquired by French Government 1988
3. Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts (no. 1988.11.2 ; 2452)

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 Latourette, Seheur, Paris, 1929, p.6, no. 1¹
• Warnod, Ceux de la Butte, Paris 1947, p. 197
• Cat. The Museum of Modern Art, New York 1951, p. 19
• Soby, Modigliani paintings, drawings, sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art NY in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art, New York 1951, p. 19
• Pfannstiel, Modigliani et son œuvre, étude critique et catalogue raisonne, Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris, 1956 - no. 26²
• Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani: Peintre; Suivi des Souvenirs de Lunia Czechowska, Edizioni del Milione, 1958 - no. 30³
• Galerie Charpentier, Cent tableaux de Modigliani, Paris, 1958 , no. 16
• Roy , Modigliani, Skira, 1958, p. 30⁴
• Csorba Geza, Czechoslovakia, I969,no. 3
• Lanthemann, Modigliani, catalogue raisonné: sa vie, son œuvre, son art, G. Condal, Barcelona, 1970 - no. 40⁵
• Ceroni & Piccioni, Il dipinti di Modigliani, Rizzoli, Milano, 1970 - no. 40⁶
• Arno, New York 1972, p. 19
• Mann, 1980, no. 26, p. 50⁷
• Roy, Beaux livres Nathan 1985, p. 33
• Castieau-Barrielle, La vie et l'œuvre de Amedeo Modigliani, Editions ACR Paris, 1987, p. 55⁸
• Patani, Catalogo Generale, Leonardo ed. Milano 1991-94 - no. 44⁹
• Parisot, Catalogue Raisonné Modigliani, Graphis Arte, 1991 - no. 4/1913¹⁰
• Alexandre, Modigliani inconnu, Témoignages, documents et dessins inédits de l'ancienne collection de Paul Alexandre, Paris, 1993, p. 47¹¹
• MR, L'Ange au visage grave, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2002, p.59, pl.2¹²
• Wayne, Modigliani & the Artists of Montparnasse, Abrams-Albright-knox gallery, 2002, p. 80¹³
• MR, L'Ange au visage grave, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2002, p. 59 (dated 1913-1914)¹²
• Klein, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, The Jewish Museum, 2004-2005 . p. 42¹⁴
• London, Royal Academy of Arts, Modigliani and His Models, 2006, p. 13? Fig. 15?
• Soto Caba, Modigliani, the timeless face, Libsa, 2007¹⁵
• Ireson, Fraquelli, Modigliani, London, Tate Modern, Skira Rizzoli, London, 2017, p. 45¹⁶

Exhibitions

• Paris, Grand Palais, Trente d’art indépendant, Salon des Artistes Indép. 1926 - no. 3101
• Bruxelles, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1933 - no. 7
• Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Amedeo Modigliani, 1951, p. 19
• New York, Museum of Modern Art, Amedeo Modigliani 1951, p. 19
• Paris. Galerie Charpentier, Cent tableaux de Modigliani, 1958 - no. 16
• Venice, Palazzo Grassi, Modigliani, 1993-94
• Czechoslovakia, 1969 - no. 3
• New York, cat. Arno 1972, p. 19
• Liege, Musée Saint-Georges, 1980, p. 32 - no. 13
• Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, 1998 (no. 53, p. 242-243- p. 341)
• Buffalo NY, Modigliani and the artists of Montparnasse, Albright-Knox Gallery, 2002-2003 - no. 3 (wrong size 81 x 45.6)
• Fort Worth, Modigliani and the artists of Montparnasse, Kimbell art Museum, 2003 - no. 3
• Los Angeles, Modigliani and the artists of Montparnasse, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2003 - no. 3
• Bonn, Amedeo Modigliani: Ein Mythos der Moderne, Bundesrepublik, 2009 - no. 29
• London, Modigliani, Tate Modern, 2017-2018

Notes

Museum verification (open sources): Museum confirmation: Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 1988.11.2. Oil on canvas, 81 × 45.6 cm, 1913. Official title: Paul Alexandre in front of a glass panel.

Listed in D'Atri papers twice:

no. 263 in D' Atri papers - as oil on canvas - 80 x 45.5 cm - dated 1913 - Alexandre collection, 1929

no. 7 in D' Atri papers - dated 1913 - Alexandre collection, 1929

Detail of the ears where the drawing in orange is clearly visible and is detailed in color

The Alexandre family recalls that the window was at the clinic of Dr. Alexandre and that Modigliani left the painting as a present to surprise his friend,

but some experts made mention of the similarity with

the windows at the studio Ochre and the style is much more advanced than the one used in 1913, specially in the treatment of the painting application.

This painting presents holes in the 4 corners (1 of them covered by restoration - top right):

The painting at Rouen Museum on a tour de force with El Greco's "caballero de la mano en el pecho":

The painting framed at Rouen museum:

The painting at the tate exhibit in 2017:

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